Devil May Cry: The Iscariot Seal
by Mistah K
Summary: An ancient force resurfaces and threatens to destroy the human world as well as the demon world. For the first time, the fate of both realms rests on Dante's shoulders. Will he succeed? Formerly known as Devil May Cry: Order of Sin
1. Miseria Cantare: The Beginning

**Disclaimer: As much as I would like to, I in fact do NOT own devil may cry or its characters which are the legal property of Capcom. Any original characters used in this story are the intellectual property of me, myself and I. Without further delay, lets get to the story!**

**Miseria Cantare: The Beginning**

He had been to hell. He had felt each of its horrors, endured every torture it had thrown at him. But that was nothing compared to this. The Dark Knight heaved over the battlements, writhing in agony as his mind was set ablaze. A chaotic mix of images, voices, sounds flooded his consciousness, drowning him in memories he couldn't understand. One word was repeated over and over again in his mind. A name.

Vergil.

None of it made any sense. He wasn't Vergil, his name was Nelo Angelo, and it always had been, for as long as he could remember. Mundus was the one who had raised him, taught him, given him _power. _These memories were useless to him. Complications keeping him from carrying out his task. And more than that, it was causing him _pain. _

The Dark Warrior was no stranger to pain. He could take a sword thrust with barely a flinch, shrug of bullet wounds with ease. But this pain was new, sharper and burning deep inside his skull. Nelo clawed at his scalp with an animalistic fervour. His gauntlets gouged into his own skin, drawing blood. The red liquid trickled down his face and dripped down to the ground hundreds of meters below, as the warrior heaved dangerously over the parapet, close to plummeting to the ground himself.

_He_ had caused this.

The man in red who looked almost exactly like him. The man who bested Nelo Angelo in combat, something that no one except his master had been able to do. The man who wore his amulet. Nelo growled and clenched his fist and howled to the moon, giving in to his primal instincts.

A chuckle behind him.

"Aw, is little Vergie having some trouble?'

Nelo whirled around, swinging his colosal sword at whatever was behind him. There was a rush of wind and suddenly _it_ was standing precariously on his blade, grinning at him mockingly. A demented _clown_ of some kind danced infuriatingly up and down his sword, paying no attention to the bewildered knight.

A wide grin was plastered across the creature's white face. The bell's on it's Jester's hat jingled cheerfully as it continued its bizzare jig. Nelo glared into the clown's multi coloured eyes with a mixture of annoyance, anger and...recognition? There was something eerily familiar about this clown, the way it spoke, the way it moved, it's colourful costume and it's eyes.

Red and blue.

One of those eyes winked and the clown ruffled Nelo's silver hair.

"It's been a long time, Vergil." The clown's voice had changed from its previous high pitch into a more deep and menacing tone.

Reverting to its previous high pitched cackle, the clown backflipped off his sword just in time as Nelo jerked the blade, intending to send the little nuisance over the battlements and plummeting to its grave. The clown landed lightly on its feet a few meters in front of Nelo, eyes twinkling with malice.

Nelo growled and raised his sword. "My name is not Vergil. I am Nelo Angelo, the Black Knight of Mundus."

The clown cackled once more.

"Nelo Angelo? Well, that's quite a mouthful isn't it?"

Nelo leaped forward and swung his blade in a downwards stroke that would have easily cleaved the clown in half if it hadn't suddenly appeared atop Vergil's shoulders, continuing his speech as if nothing had happened.

"Hmmmm. In the case of 'the Black Knight of Mundus" stuff, I guess you can scratch the Mundus part out. Your little twin in red's made sure of that"

With a grunt of anger, Nelo thrust his sword up over his shoulders to skewer the clown, but it was already gone. It reappeared in front of him to deliver a well placed boot to Nelo's unguarded stomach. Nelo staggered back, surprised by the force of the blow. This little idiot was more powerful than he looked.

The grinning clown leapt into the air and knocked Nelo clear off his feet with a spinning kick to the chest. Nelo collided with the stone battlements, making a loud cracking sound as several sections of stone broke off and crashed to the ground. Nelo was onto his feet in less than a second with his sword ready. This demented freak seemed more than a match for him in his curent weakened state. Curse that man in red!

The clown laughed again and prepared to attack as Nelo quickly changed his game plan. It sprang at Nelo, but the Black Knight quickly leaped out of the way and swung his blade at the battlements behind him. The stone burst asunder from the force of the blow, leaving a gaping hole in the parapet. Jester teetered over the edge, his arms windmilling comically, until Nelo put an end to his misery with an unceremonious boot to the rump. Nelo watched the little imp plummet hundreds of meters down with grim satisfaction.

"Now, onto more important matters," He murmered to himself. Nelo turned around and with a look of utter shock, he came face to face, once again with the clown.

The clown wagged a gloved finger in front of Nelo's nose.

"What's wrong Vergie? I thought we were pals! Why did ya have to go and-"

Its remark was cut short as Nelo drove his sword straight through its chest and and out its back. The clown looked down at the blade and to Nelo's surprise, a slow smirk crept across its face.

Dark tendrils of smoke wreathed around the clown's form and crept up the sword. Before long, the clown was completely covered in darkness. Nelo snarled and tried to wrench his sword out. The sword didn't budge.

The smoke receded and Nelo found himself staring not at the bizarre clown, but at a bald man, clad in black. The man had the same red and blue eyes as the clown, sunken into a heavily scarred face. The ghost of a smile flitted across the man's face. In a single fluid movement, he prised Nelo's hands from the sword, wrenched it from his own body and ran Nelo through, cleaving through armour, skin, bone and muscle. Nelo fell to his knees, impaled by his own sword. Blood bubbled from his lips as he stared into the man's eyes. Dimly, he noticed that the entire castle was beginning to crumble.

A word came unbidden from his lips.

"Arkham?"

Arkham smirked and wrenched the sword out of Vergil's chest.

"Welcome back. Vergil."

As his vison faded over, the last thing he saw was Arkham holding up the sword, stained with blood, so that it glowed an unearthly blue light. The metal seemed to drip off the blade like water to collect in molten puddles on the ground. Arkham was left holding a long katana like sword in his hand.

The Yamato.

Without another word, Vergil, Son of Sparda collapsed to the ground and lost consciousness.


	2. Dead Men Walking

**Dead Men Walking**

The man leapt from rooftop to rooftop with an easy grace, clearing distances that would have been impossible for any normal human. His brilliant red coat stood out in the pitch black of night, contrasting with his strangely pale skin and unnatural silver hair. A huge sword was strapped across his back, and a pair of pistols at his waist. Anyone could tell at first glance that this man was not normal by any standards which would have been a fair assumption. He was a half demon. One of the two sons of Sparda.

His name was Dante.

The devil hunter dropped twenty feet from one building to a smaller one and landed with a cat like grace. He straightened up and brushed a hand through his hair before walking over to the edge of the rooftop. The half blood took in a deep breath of the night air, smiling to himself.

He loved the smell of the air in New York. It was one of the reasons why he called the place home. That, and the fact that he had set up shop there. All his favourite aromas were thick and heavy in the atmosphere. Fast food (pizza in particular), gasoline, alcohol, it was all there. On this particular night, it seemed like there was even a little bit of fire and brimstone thrown in to the intoxicating aroma, but Dante figured he was just imagining things.

Dante looked down at the narrow alley beneath, tightly wedged between the building he was standing on and another building opposite. A small group of demons was being assaulted by a rabid mob of humans. The strange thing was, the humans seemed to be winning. Dante had heard of incidents like this and that was why he had been patrolling the rooftops.

Groups of humans attacking and defeating demons. Of course, they could have just been demon hunters, but as far as Dante knew, hunters never hunted en masse. The crowd members appeared to be human, ranging in all sizes and shapes, women, men even children. Dante frowned. Something just...didn't seem right about them. They seemed to give off a strange aura which basically screamed unnatural.

The humans dispatched the demons in a wild variety of fashions. Limbs were ripped off, necks broken, skulls crushed under fists and feet. Eventually, only three demons were left, Marionettes, wielding wicked looking blades on their arms. Dante noticed that they seemed to be bunched around a bundle of blue rags. One human man drew too close to one of the demon's blades, and soon a gout of blood spurted out of the stump where the man's arm once was. Dante winced. That human was a goner. Just as Dante was about to leap from the rooftop and into the fray, he saw that the man had shrugged off the demon's attack like it was nothing and was now using his own severed arm as a club to batter the demons with.

_What the hell is going on here...these guys are definitely not normal humans._

Dante watched in amazement as one woman's leg was forcefully removed and she simply grabbed onto the demon's leg as she fell and held on like a pit-bull. More humans were seemingly mortally injured, but just kept on attacking the demon's with an animalistic ferocity. Two demons fell to overwhelming numbers until just one remained, fighting desperately to protect the blue rags at its feet.

_Why does that thing want to protect those rags so much? _

Then Dante's eyes went wide as he saw the rags stir and a head poke out. A head covered with silver hair. The face was obscured by the demon's leg, but Dante had seen enough.

_No...it couldn't be...well, it doesn't hurt to check. _

In an instant, Dante's twin pistols, Ebony and Ivory were in his hands. He twirled them expertly with a grin on his face.

_Time for some fun._

The Marionette cut down two more humans with a slash of its scythe, but the human's simply picked themselves back up again. It raised its scythe once more, but then there was a sound above it. The demon looked up and saw a red shape descending from the heavens to drive a boot in its skull. There was a horrible cracking sound before the demon crumpled to the ground under Dante's weight. The half devil stood with one foot on the demon's body, which soon crumbled to dust. He eyed the crowd warily; Ebony and Ivory cocked, loaded and ready to unleash hell.

"Aww, you started the party without me? And it's almost over too! I got to say guys, I'm really offended."

There was a growling all around him as the mob of people pressed in closer. There were more of them than Datne had thought. They seemed to create a solid wall of flesh around the devil hunter. Still, the more the merrier. Dante looked down at the bundle of blue at his feet. He still couldn't clearly see a face, it was pressed to the concrete. He turned back to the mob.

"Lucky I got here when I did. Cause what's a party without your favourite devil hunter, right?"

Dante's eyes darted back and forth, looking for options. Up close, it was clear that the people really weren't human. Or at least not living. Several of them had deep, bleeding gashes that no human could survive from. Many had rips in their chest so that their rib cages were showing, gruesome strips of bloodied flesh hanging from their wounds. Half of the face of one woman had been completely ripped off, revealing her bloodstained skull underneath. As they closed in, Dante also noticed the horrible stench that emanated from them. The stench of decay and death.

_Zombies? You've got to be kidding me. What is this, a bad horror movie?._

"I can see you're all eager to get a piece of me. So, without further ado," Dante bowed down low and smirked.

"Let's get this party started!"

As if on cue, one of the humans, or rather one of the zombies broke away from the crowd and lunged at Dante.

BOOM!

The walking corpse was blasted clear out of the air and crashed to the ground at Dante's feet next to the blue rags, a neat hole drilled into it's forehead.

"One down...what the hell?"

The zombie he had just shot suddenly grabbed onto his leg with strength that would have broken the bones of most humans. But Dante wasn't most humans. After a powerful kick, the zombie went flying back into the crowd, sending several of his fellow zombies tumbling to the ground. Dante fired off a barrage of bullets, each one driving itself into the skull of a zombie. But each of them that had been hit soon lurched back to their feet and lunged towards Dante, only to be put down again with a well placed bullet.

"These bastards are tougher than I thought," growled the half demon.

A zombie managed to jump onto Dante's back and prepared to sink its teeth into the Dante's neck. The devil hunter easily flipped it off of him so that it landed back first in front of his feet. Dante raised his boot, and brought it down on the zombie's skull with such force that its head exploded like a watermelon hit by a sledgehammer, skulls fragments and bits of brain matter flying every which way.

_Finally...one down, a hundred more to go._

A constant stream of bullets burst out of Ebony and Ivory, keeping the crowd of undead at bay as Dante slowly turned on the spot, creating a whirlwind of searing metal. A zombie managed to sneak through Dante's assault and lunged at him, a steel pipe in hand. In an instant, Ebony and Ivory disappeared from his hands and were replaced by Alastor. The huge sword sliced through the air, crackling with electricity. It sliced clean through the pipe the zombie was holding before moving on to cleave its neck from its head.

The decapitated zombie's head hit the ground with a sickening thud leaving its body standing awkwardly, blood spurting from the ragged hole in it's neck before collapsing to the ground, lifeless once again. Dante smiled as he gave Alaster an expert flourish, wielding the massive blade as if it were as light as a feather.

_So, I've got to cut off their heads, huh? Seems easy enough. _

Dante looked down at his feet at the bundle of rags.

_But I've got to protect him as well, that might be difficult...ah, screw it, I can take all of em on._

The half devil tightened his grip on Alastor as the remaining zombies closed in, preparing to rush him all at once. Dante smirked and motioned for his undead opponents to bring it on.

"What are you waiting for? Give me everything you've got."

As if in response, one of the zombies gave an inhuman roar of rage and in a split second they all lunged forward as one, arms outstretched to tear Dante apart. Lightning pierced the air once again as Dante sprung into action, whirling like a tornado. The zombies fell back by the dozens, some decapitated, others with various limbs removed. Alastor was a blur as Dante ducked and weaved slashing and stabbing like a maniac. Anything in his path was cut into ribbons. Blood soon began to pool across the floor, forming a gruesome puddle of gore around the devil slayer.

Dante stood panting amongst the gruesome mix of blood and severed body parts, surveying the situation. Despite the number of zombie's he had managed to kill (well, re-kill actually), there seemed to be even more surrounding him than before. He gave a growl of frustration as he cleaved a charging zombie in half. Once again, there seemed to be a literal wall of undead surrounding him. They hung back for now, regrouping before they would launch another attack.

"What's the matter, chumps? Afraid of little old me?"

Dante readied himself for the next wave when suddenly, the bundle of blue rags stirred again. A human shape rose from beneath the rags, fighting up to its hands and knees. A fragment of blue cloth faded away, revealing a face that had haunted Dante's dreams for years. A face that looked almost exactly like his.

"Vergil," Dante whispered.

His twin brother looked up at him with a look of confusion and pain.

"Dante?"

Vergil's eyes glazed over and closed and he collapsed to the ground again. Dante looked up again, a mix of anger and determination in his eyes.

"You've got a hell of a lot to answer for, brother."

Dante picked up his twin on his shoulder and returned Alastor back to its place on his back. There was no way he could protect Vergil and fight the zombies for ever and there seemed to be a limitless supply of the undead warriors. So, though he hated to say it, Dante had to run away. For now at least.

Dante flashed a cocky grin at his undead opponents as he hefted Vergil.

"I'm sorry, my adoring fans, but unfortunately, I have to make my exit."

He crouched down as the zombies rushed forward, building up energy in his legs. Just as the zombies were about to converge on him, Dante leaped high into the air, at least fifteen feet straight up, with Vergil still on his shoulders.

_This is gonna be difficult with my fat ass brother on my shoulder...well, we'll see how it goes._

Still in mid air, suspended above the seething mass of undead beneath, electricity crackled all over Dante's body. His entire body glowed with unearthly light, and with a tremendous explosion of power, Dante unleashed his devil trigger.

In an instant, his entire body transformed from a man to a demon. Dark scales covered his body, his face became demonic and beast like. Claws sprouted from his hands and various jagged spikes and horns jutted out from various parts of his body. Finally, a pair of black wings sprouted from Dante's back, lightning flashing with each flap. Dante ascended into the air at a rapid pace and smiled down at the zombies below.

"Count yourselves lucky! You got off easy this time! I'll be back!"

And with that, he disappeared into the night.

Standing on a building over hanging the alley, a scarred man with strange eyes watched the Devil Hunter leave. Arkham frowned and whispered to himself.

"This will complicate things."

There was a puff of smoke, and Arkham was no where to be seen.


	3. Brutus and Cassius

Water crashed down onto the charred rocks with a fury matched only by the fires of Hell. The boulders haulted much of the water's progress, but what was left hurled itself at the new stone walls barring its wrath. Gouts of foam stretched up more than a hundred feet up the side, as if it was trying to climb up over the wall. For a second, it looked as if it might succeed, but spent all its energy, the ocean's deadly fingers slid down the stone and retreated back into the blue.

Watching atop the huge walls, a man smirked at the attempts of the ocean to reclaim its lost property. The man turned to look at the view beyond the walls and below him. Dark, blackened land as if scorched by fire stretched for miles. Deep valleys and crevasses, etched by time were gouged into the landscape. Twisted and blackened remains of forests and trees, plants and flowers were scattered around, dark reminders of the beauty the place once beheld.

The man breathed in the cold air as it whipped across his bald scalp. He closed his eyes for a second before opening them, once again revieling the red and blue orbs. The air smelt of death, suffering and loss. Refreshing.

Only one place was saved from destruction. A single circlular pillar of golden stone, raised from the ground by around forty or so feet. Lush, beautiful trees, golden with age surrounded the pillar, their vines stretching around it with an almost loving quality. Atop the pillar was a circle of men in dark cloaks, praying around a colossal tree growing out of the stone.

The tree stretched out towards the heavens, deep brown and rich, thick branches arching out magestically. Embedded in the trunk of the tree was a sword made of a strangely luminescent black metal. There were no leaves, but a single blood red apple dangled precariously above the men in the circle, threatening to fall at any second. The men bowed before it in sync, and with every bow, the tree throbbed in answer, like a beating heart.

Arkham watched the tree with a face devoid of any emotion. His lip twitched, very slightly, barely visible. For the few that knew him, they would know that it was a sign of malcontent. something had gone wrong in his elaborate plan.

A shadow flitted behind him.

"Arkham."

Arkham didn't turn around.

"Cassius. Where's Brutus?"

Another shadow emerged, seemingly from the ground at Arkham's left side. A heavy hand, nothing more than a molten mass of shadows brushed Arkham's shoulder.

"Here."

Arkham's lip twitched again.

"Why do you two insist on sneaking up like that on a poor old fellow like me. Isn't walking enough for you?"

The shadow on Arkham's left pulsed once as it started to take a more corporeal shape. Out of the corner of Arkham's eye, he saw the other shadow move up to his right side.

The shadow to his right, Cassius was already beginning to transform as well. Within a second, it had become a man of slight build and obviously Roman descent, complete with eagle like nose. His skin and hair was as pale and white as polished marble, with a face that barely moved at all, giving the strong impression that he had been carved from stone. He wore a long robe, equally as white and stone like as his skin. Sunken red eyes were set into the face.

Cassius raised his hand and clenched it experimentally.

He hissed into Arkham's ear. "We don't take orders from you."

Even when whispering, Cassius' voice was deep and commanding.

The shadow to Arkham's right, Brutus had transformed into a mirror image, but doubled in size. His skin seeemed to be as dark and black as his shadow form. It was completely smooth and was even more stone like than Cassius' skin. The face, and the hair didn't move at all and there were no eyes. Just holes where they should have been. Brutus also wore a robe, as dark and stone like as his skin, the cloth didn't move or ripple. Brutus obviously didn't have the finess of his counterpart. he was actually a moving statue, where Cassius was simply statue like.

Arkham chuckled, seemingly unphased as Brutus loomed over him.

"I am more than aware that you have no respect for me, but gentlemen we have a schedule to run through. We might as well not drive each other insane until our plan comes full circle."

Cassius stared balefully at the tree atop the pillar. " Ah yes, the plan," he hissed. "I trust that all is running smoothly?"

Arkham frowned before speaking. "As you know, the demon's managed to break Vergil out and created a portal to the human world. You sent your legion of undead to recapture our prize, but unfortunately, a certain red clad devil hunter interfered."

Brutus suddenly spoke. Soft, gravelly and dangerous, like the hiss of a snake.

"The other Son of Sparda? The devil hunter, Dante?"

Arkham nodded. "Correct."

Cassius shook his head and the ground around him seemed to crack with his anger.

"How could you let this happen? How will we resurrect Judas without the blood of Sparda?"

Even in anger, Cassius spoke quietly, but menace was laced into every word.

"Calm down, Cassius. Don't worry, Dante will soon be taken care of. And think of the opportunities this has opened. Now we have two Sons of Sparda in one place. All you have to do is send another army of living dead, and Cain can take on Dante himself."

"You really think Cain can defeat a Son of Sparda?" murmured Cassius.

Arkham shrugged.

"At this point, he's our best option."

Brutus growled and began to face away, morphing back into a shapeless shadow. Cassius' form was also beginning to fade. He whispered into Arkham's ear again, his voice layered with menace.

_Very well. But we'll be watching..._


	4. A Dish Best Served Cold

**A Dish Best Served Cold**

Lady hurtled down the road on her motorbike, the wind whipping through her hair. She quickly checked her watch before fixing her eyes back on to the road.

_Okay, if I work quickly, I'll probably be able to finish this before the pizza arrives at my place._

A gout of flame shot out of the exhaust pipe as the bike accelerated, becoming a blur of speed. Tonight was just a routine job, a bar tender had called her describing what fitted the description of a minor demon attack, most likely marionettes or hell prides. Nothing that Lady wouldn't be able to handle, so she had packed light. A pair of huge customized six shooter revolvers, a machete, and her beloved Kalina Anne rocket launcher strapped to the side of the bike just in case.

Lady's stomach gave a growl as she neared her destination.

_Damn, I'm hungry. That pizza man better be there when I get back_.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to her and she laughed, but quickly closed her mouth in case any bugs decided to fly in, which was very likely at the speed she was going.

_Well, what do you know? I've been having pizza for dinner every day for the past month. It could be the fact that I can't cook for shit, or that albino ass hole really is rubbing off on me_.

She scowled at this thought. Ever since that incident so many years ago at the Temen Ni Gru, Lady and Dante had formed a "friend-like" relationship. Still, Dante never ceased to annoy the hell out of Lady. He could push her buttons like no other man could. It was lucky Dante was a half demon, because more often than not, when Lady lost her temper she sent a bullet drilling into the red clad devil hunter's skull. Although hse some times forgot it, the name 'Lady' which she used due to lack of a better moniker was actually a nickname which Dante had labelled her with. She had to admit, it had grown on her.

The bike screeched to a halt in front of the bar. The Temple of Nirvana, which was the name of the bar, as evidenced by the flickering neon sign above the door, was an establishment that certainly did not fit the over extravagant name it had been given. The paint covering its outer walls and roof had long since flaked off, and the windows were dusty and cracked. Demons seemed to be attracted this types of places. Lady hopped off her bike, leaving Kalina Ann strapped securely to its side. This wouldn't take long.

Lady gave the door a push, and it swung inwards with a dangerous creak. The devil hunter entered the bar and took a look around. The interior was as seedy as the exterior. It was a rather cramped space; on one side of the room was a bar counter with a shelf filled with bottles of beer and other beverages. On the other side were a couple of old wooden tables and chairs, seated with a few solitary customers, mostly big, burly men quietly sipping their beer. The men didn't even look up as Lady entered. Strange, considering the admiring stares she usually drew.

A rotating fan spun on the ceiling, its blades revolving with a quiet hum. A bearded man behind the counter motioned for Lady to come to him. She approached the man cautiously and registered the door slamming shut behind her unaided. That was never a good sign.

Something about the place just didn't seem right. Lady suddenly had a very bad feeling in her gut that this wasn't quite the routine job she was expecting. She considered going back and getting Kalina Ann, but decided to get the gist of the situation before bringing out the big guns. Still, as a precaution, she let her hand rest on one of the pistols hanging from its holster by her side. Lady put her free hand on the counter and eyed the bearded man suspiciously before speaking.

"What's the problem here? And make it quick I got somewhere to be."

The man behind the counter smiled behind his beard revealing cracked and yellowed teeth. He threw his head back and laughed. It sounded like a baby being crushed in a car compactor...well maybe that description was a bit melodramatic, but the man's laugh certainly did sound strange and awful. The bearded man with a baby crushing laugh then lifted up his shirt revealing a gaping hole in his skin that steadily poured out blood.

Lady whipped out one of her guns, ready to put a well placed bullet in this freak's skull. "What the hell are you?" she hissed through gritted teeth. Before she could squeeze the trigger, she heard a noise behind her and turned around just in the nick of time as one of the men drinking beer behind her suddenly jumped out of his seat and rushed towards her, toting a large axe, normally used for chopping wood. In this instance, it appeared that it would be used for relieving Lady of her limbs. Lady quickly ducked down with lightning reflexes and grabbed the man's wrists, using his own weight to flip him over the counter and crashing into the bearded man, taking them both down.

Both men were up quickly, and soon found a smoking hole smack in the middle of their foreheads as Lady whipped out both her customized revolvers and emptied a bullet into both of their skulls. The two men collapsed to the ground, liquid dripping from their eyes and ears. The guns were Lady's own design. They resembled Colt Peacemakers, featuring a revolving chamber holding six rounds, though the guns and the bullets were larger than ordinary Colts.

The reason for this was that the bullets were specially made, hollowed out and filled with holy water. They were designed so that once the bullet had drilled inside the victim, they would explode, releasing the holy water and causing major damage. This would take down many minor demons with a single shot to a vital area, and cause heavy damage to the more powerful demons. These men certainly weren't human, but Lady didn't doubt that a direct shot to the head would easily put them down for good.

Lady turned around and found that all of the other men seated at the tables had risen up and approached her menacingly. She counted them off in her head. There were about six or so in the room, though she saw a back door open and more begin to shuffle inside.

_Damn, I better finish this quickly. _

She raised her twin guns and began firing with deadly precision, each bullet driving into one of the men's skulls. She emptied the last of the bullets in each gun and flicked them back to reload but paused as she saw the men she had hit get back up, seemingly unhurt by the onslaught of burning hot lead and holy water.

_What the hell are these guys...They're no way human, but even a demon would at least be seriously hurt by holy water._

Before she could ponder on this for longer, she felt a pair of heavily muscled arms grab her from behind and a tremendous pressure beginning to squeeze her neck. The bearded man had recovered from the bullet in his skull and had risen up to grab Lady in a sleeper hold from behind the counter. The other man had gotten up to still toting the axe which he now raised, ready to swing. Lady gasped for breath and her grip on one of her guns loosened, causing it to clatter to the floor.

Using her flexibility, she kicked upwards and caught the bearded man straight in the forehead with the toe of her boot. The man released his grip, allowing Lady to drop to her knees just as his companion swung the axe for all he was worth, cutting straight through his neck. The bearded man's head fell to the ground with a hollow thud, shortly followed by his now limp body.

Lady sprang up again and gripped the axe wielder's wrists before flipping him over the bar again and crashing to the floor. She managed to wrench the axe from his hands and then brought it crashing back down on his throat, decapitating him. The body twitched wildly for a few seconds before becoming motionless.

_Well, at least I know how to kill them now_

Lady raised the axe over her head with one hand and twirled her remaining pistol casually in the other. There were quite a few men around her now, though they hung back after seeing how easily she had handled their allies. Up close, Lady noticed that many of them had gory wounds in their bodies and faces, ragged holes and cuts. They moved with strange, jerky actions and had a strange dull and dead look in their eyes.

_Zombies? That's a first. _

Lady smirked as one of the zombies broke from the pack and charged at her. Without missing a beat, Lady slid her remaining revolver across the floor at the zombie's feet. The zombie stepped on the gun and lost its balance, stumbling forward. Lady swung the axe with lightning speed and in a second, the zombie lay unmoving on the floor, its head separated from its body. Lady twirled like some kind of psychotic ballerina as a pair of zombies lunged at her from behind. Two heads soon rolled to the ground as the axe became a blur of movement.

More zombies rushed at the huntress, but they all fell decapitated as Lady leaped and twirled, ducking, dodging and slicing with a skill that made the axe seem less like a wood chopping instrument than a deadly and elegant weapon. The floor soon became slick with blood and Lady soon found herself covered in head to toe with her victims' life blood. One wily zombie managed to avoid the initial swing of her axe and attempted to spear tackle the physically smaller woman to the ground. But Lady was far too fast and she leapt clear over the creature's head and landed on one of the tables.

Lady caught her breath, her chest rising and falling with exertion. The zombies crowded around the table she was standing on, carefully stepping over the bodies of their comrades, though they stayed away from her reach, weary of the axe.

Seeing this, Lady swung her axe through the air in challenge.

"Is that all that you boys have got? Now come on, I haven't even gotten started yet!" Lady shouted with a grin.

She opened her mouth to dish out some further verbal punishment but was drowned out by a colossal bang. Lady just barely managed to leap clear as the table she was standing on simply exploded into a pile of splinters and burnt wood. She flipped gracefully in the air and landed on the counter, and looked around for the source of the noise. She didn't have to as one of the zombies pushed past the others with a shotgun held in its hands. Lady's jaw dropped as the zombie flashed Lady a maggot riddled grin and opened fire. Lady dropped down to her knees behind the counter and the shot sailed over her head and collided with the shelf behind her. Lady threw her arms up over her head as she was showered by shattering glass and beer.

_What the hell? Zombies with shotguns?_

Lady heard the distinct shuck-shuck of the shotgun reloading and the shuffling footsteps of the other zombies as they moved closer to the counter, getting ready to leap over it and tear her to shreds. But Lady wouldn't give them the chance. She sprang up to her feet before the shotgun-toting zombie could fire and raised the axe in the air, tensing her muscles. The zombie stood apart from the crowd, near the door and its eyes widened in shock as Lady pitched the axe straight at him. The axe spun through the air before lodging its self with tremendous force into the zombie's chest.

The zombie was staggered backwards, the axe still lodged in its chest. Its arm jerked up from the impact, instinctively firing. The shotgun round collided with the joint of the ceiling fan, blowing it clear off the ceiling and into the crowd of zombies underneath. The fan continued to rotate wildly, cutting and piercing through flesh and blood with a hideous grinding sound as it single handedly massacred the zombies. Blood and severed body parts flew through the air in every direction.

The shotgun zombie stood apart from its writhing brothers, clawing at the axe embedded in its chest. It barely noticed the black haired huntress seemingly appear out of no where right in front of it. Lady ripped the axe out of the zombie's chest and used it to slice through the arm holding the shotgun. The zombie lurched backwards, blood spurting from its wounds. Lady picked up the shotgun and aimed it at the zombie. She pulled the trigger and blasted the zombie clear off its feet and sent it crashing through the window behind it and onto the street outside. Lady turned around and saw that the fan had ceased its spinning and that the remaining zombies were now approaching her with a murderous look on their blood splattered faces.

Lady raised the shotgun and managed to squeeze off two shots, blasting two of the zombie's heads into paste before the shotgun clicked empty. She threw the shotgun aside and hurled the axe at the zombies as a parting shot before flipping backwards, sailing out the shattered window and outside. She quickly rolled to her bike and ripped Kalina Ann free of its harness. She pointed the deadly weapon at the bar. A missile flew out of Kalina Ann's barrel and sailed in through the window. There was a colossal explosion that rattled the very foundation of the building and the door was blown completely off its hinges as a tongue of fire blossomed out. Then there was silence.

Lady lowered her gun, panting slightly.

"Done already? Damn, I was just starting to have some fun," said Lady with a laugh. Lady's laugher came to an abrupt stop as she felt a hand clasp her shoulder from behind.

"Don't worry, my dear. It's not over yet," said an all too familiar voice. A scream of rage came unbidden from Lady's mouth and she whirled around swinging Kalina Ann with all her strength. Arkham blocked Kalina Ann's bayonet-like blade with his bare hand and tossed the huge rocket launcher away with a casual flick of his wrist, sending it spinning from Lady's grip. Lady swung her fist at her father's jaw, but Arkham deftly moved his head out of the way and struck Lady in the stomach with his open palm.

The huntress was thrown back a full ten feet and landed with a heavy thud on the pavement. She struggled to her feet, blood leaking from her mouth as Arkham walked non chalantly towards her.

"You son of a bitch...I thought I killed you a long time ago."

Arkham shrugged, not pausing in his stride.

"You did my dear daugher. But now I'm back, and I'm afraid you need to be punished. I don't take kindly to being killed."

Lady clenched her fists, feeling her nails bite into her palms. Her whole body burned with an inconceivable rage. This couldn't be happening. The man who had taken everything away from her was back to do it all again. Just when she thought she had everything together again, her father came back from the dead with the sole purpose of making her life a living hell. She looked her father straight in the eyes, those strange eyes that matched hers exactly. One eye red, The other one blue.

"I killed you once before, and now I'm gonna do it again," Lady hissed through gritted teeth.

She charged at Arkham, closing the distance between them in a split second. Arkham raised his hand to intercept her, but Lady ducked under his arm and ran behind him. She sprinted towards the weapon that would allow her to send her father back to hell. The Kalina Ann. Lady dived towards the weapon and managed to get one hand onto it, but found that it wouldn't budge from the ground. She looked up to see that Arkham had somehow appeared out of thin air and stood over her with his foot firmly planted on Kalina Ann.

"Come now, Mary. Is that really the best you can do?"

"My name isn't Mary!"

She used her hands to push herself clear off the ground and flipped forward 180 degrees, her legs kicking out towards Arkham's chest. With a soft whooshing sound of displaced air, Arkham disappeared from sight before Lady could touch him. She landed on her feet and snatched up Kalina Ann. Lady span around just in time to block an open handed strike from Arkham with Kalina Ann's blade. Arkham's hand collided with the sharp edge and quickly pulled away, undamaged, but the force of the strike almost wrenched Kalina Ann from Lady's grip and forced her back a few steps. Lady flipped back wards to put space between her and Arkham and landed on her feet, Kalina Ann poised and ready to fire.

_He's still insanely fast. I got to catch him off guard somehow._

Arkham shook his head and chuckled to himself quietly.

"As entertaining as this is, Mary, I don't have time to play your little game anymore. It is time to finish this pathetic little family quarrel."

Lady smirked and tightened her grip on Kalina Ann.

"I couldn't agree more."

Arkham disappeared from view once again, but Lady was already whipping around, swinging Kalina Ann. Arkham appeared a split second later, right in the path of her blade. He blocked the blade easily with one hand and moved his other hand to strike, Lady ducked under the blow, pivoting on one foot to launch a swift kick at Arkham's chest. His hand latched onto her foot with a vice like grip, and wrenched it to the side, intending to break her ankle. Instead, Lady used the momentum he provided her to spin and launch yet another lightning fast kick at Arkham's face. This time, it connected. Arkham staggered backwards, clutching his cheek.

His eyes widened in surprise as he found that Lady had taken to the air, floating gracefully above Arkham with a triumphant grin on her face. She pointed Kalina Ann downwards, right at Arkham's bewildered face and squeezed the trigger. The ground shook as the missile exploded with tremendous force.

Lady landed a few metres away from the smoking crater that the missile had left. She stared at the crater, dumb struck. No corpse was to be seen.

_How the hell did he escape? _

Lady whirled around again, expecting Arkham to appear behind her, but her blade cut through thin air. She looked up and saw a strange shape soaring down from the sky towards her. A boot collided with Lady's face, and she was thrown to the ground. Lady looked up blearily with one eye swollen shut. Blood trickled down her face, further obscuring her vision.

A man resembling a clown stood before her, giggling insanely. "Don't look now deary, but you got a little somethin'-somethin' on your pretty little face!" he cackled.

"You still wear that ridiculous disguise, Arkham?" growled Lady as she struggled to her feet.

Jester shrugged.

"I admit, it's a little behind the current fashion, but hey, I'm trying to bring the look back in. I'm a trend setter."

He dashed forward and delivered a brutal knee to Lady's stomach. Lady doubled over, gasping for breath. The clown relentlessly drove his knee into Lady's stomach again, still cackling with glee. Lady's vision began to darken from the pain and she tasted blood in her mouth. It felt like her insides were about to explode. Jester swung his fist this time and hit Lady with a massive hay maker, knocking her clear off her feet and into the air. He then grabbed Lady while she was still suspended in the air and then brought her crashing back down to the ground with such force that the concrete shuddered and cracked.

Lady's senses were overloaded with pain and an agonized scream escaped her mouth that was shortly turned into a strangled gurgle as blood bubbled up into her throat. Her eyes drooped; she was beginning to lose consciousness. Now it was Arkham's face that loomed over her, but some of Jester's sadistic glee still lingered on his normally expressionless face.

"Don't worry, Mary. We aren't finished with you yet."

Then the pain overcame her, and all she saw was darkness.


	5. The Mark of Cain

**The Mark of Cain**

Devil May Cry.

The very name struck fear into the hearts of demons in this world and the underworld. It was once renamed Devil Never Cry, but Dante re-renamed it Devil May Cry again, as he figured it was more catchy.

The actual establishment didn't exactly live up to expectations. To the casual observer, the seedy little building with a neon sign looked very much like a strip club of some sort. In fact, a scantily clad young woman had once walked in, looking for a job. Dante welcomed her with open arms, though his partner welcomed her with a closed fist. The interior wasn't much better than the exterior. The floor was literally covered with an ocean of pizza boxes. Standing amidst the pizza boxes were several items of interest, such as a pool table, a large stack of pornographic magazines, several guitars, a drum set and a number of other objects that looked like they would belong to a delinquent teenager. The only features that suggested a supernatural quality were the walls. The walls were covered with a variety of twisted skulls and other bony appendages. Many of these skulls were malformed and inhuman, with jutting horns and fangs. Among the skulls was a huge variety of deadly and exotic weapons. Swords, guns, nunchaku, gauntlets, the works.

On this particular night, a slender young woman who went by the name of Trish sat at the front desk, her feet up and chewing a slice of pizza with a far away look in her eye. Trish wasn't in her usual attire of tight black leather; she wore a pair of faded old jeans and one of Dante's old Iron Maiden T-shirts. She didn't actually know who or what Iron maiden was, but all the skulls and gravestones reminded her of home. On the floor beside her lay a massive, unearthly looking sword, Sparda, the blade of Dante's father.

Two years had passed since Dante had defeated Mundus, and since then Trish had taken up residence within Devil May Cry, and operated as the Son of Sparda's partner in crime.

She yawned and brushed a strand of her long blonde hair from her face. Dante was out again, on one of his night patrols. Once again, he'd told her to stay home. She'd heartily told him to go fuck himself, but he was adamant that she stay behind. Too lazy to argue, Trish decided to "hold down the fort" as Dante put it. The silver haired hunter had been having more and more outings at night, and he started going on missions alone more often as well without telling Trish. Frankly, it pissed her off. What was she now, his secretary? Trish decided that they'd have some serious talking to do when Dante got back.

Trish threw the slice of pizza into the air and pointed her finger at it. A bolt of yellow lightning zig zagged out from her index finger, and instantly vaporized the airborne pizza slice. Trish yawned again and checked her watch. Dante should have been back an hour ago. She swung her legs off the table and picked up Sparda from the floor. She'd have to go and find the bastard.

But before she could even get out of her seat, the door burst open and Dante came striding in. Trish gasped. It wasn't the fact that he was covered from head to toe in blood that made her jaw drop. That was normal. It was because he seemed to be carrying...himself. Or at least, someone that looked like him covered in blue rags. In fact, the person in his arms looked exactly like Dante. Trish could only think of one explanation.

"Oh my god..." she whispered. "Vergil?"

Dante nodded and moved swiftly to the desk, parting the sea of pizza boxes along the way. The cleared the mess with a sweep of his arm and gently laid his brother down onto the desk.

Trish sprang to her feet and began examining Vergil's injuries. The son of Sparda was covered in cuts and grazes, and several huge gashes and puncture holes that leaked blood constantly. These wounds would have no doubt killed a normal human. But Trish could see that they were already healing over, skin knitting its self back together again. Trish frowned. The wounds were healing too slowly. Normally they should have healed almost instantly. Something strange was going on.

"Jesus, Dante," she said, still whispering, though she had no idea why. "Where the hell did you find him?"

Dante didn't reply, instead he moved to the open door way. His eyes widened. "What the-"

His voice was drowned out by the roar of an engine and the screech of tires. A four wheel drive crashed through the door way, taking much of the wall with it. It slammed into Dante with a bone shattering crunch. The car kept on going, speeding towards Trish and Vergil, Dante hanging on for dear life on the car's hood. Thinking quickly, Trish grabbed Vergil, and they both disappeared in a flash of yellow light, just as the car ploughed through the desk which exploded into splinters and wood chips. The four wheel drive finally came to a jarring halt crushing Dante into the far wall. Dante groaned as he heard the steady drip of leaking gasoline.

"Great...just fucking great."

There was a deafening boom and the car exploded.

oooooooooooo

Trish and the still unconscious Vergil reappeared just outside the building. She looked up to find that the pair had apparantly gathered a crowd. Trish raised an eyebrow at the bizzarre assortment of individuals. Bloodshot eyes, ragged clothes, and jerky, unnatural movements. Trish smirked, it was like she'd stepped into a bad remake of Michael Jackosn's Thriller.

One of the Michael Jackson rejects lurched forward with surprising speed. Without thinking, Trish cleaved the man in two. Trish blinked at the twitching torso at her feet.

"What in the world?"

The legless corpse grasped at her legs, and Trish promptly drove Sparda through its skull. It stopped moving immediately.

"Hands off, buddy."

Trish stood over the prone form of Vergil, Sparda in her hand. She smiled at her opponents and flourished the colossal sword.

"Who else wants some?"

The demonic blade began to crackle with yellow electricity as Trish charged her energy into it. She raised the blade above her head, and it transformed into a wicked scythe. She swung the blade around her, just as the freaks charged. A wave of golden light erupted from Sparda as Trish spun on one foot in a circle. All the zombies around her were cleaved in two by the deadly light. The remaining twenty or so of them fell back and huddled together in a group, regrouping before they would launch their attack.

Trish smiled and raised Sparda again, but suddenly, she heard a colossal explosion behind her. She turned around to find that the Devil May Cry building was suddenly on fire! Her jaw dropped as the building she had called home for so many years, suddenly collapsed in on itself, and in the space of a few seconds become nothing more than a smoking pile of rubble.

Trish whipped around to face the remaining zombies, eyes blazing with fury. The zombies shrank back as the blonde woman stepped forward. Even they knew that hell hath no fury like a woman whose house has just been burned down.

Trish disappeared with a crackle of lightning and reappeared amongst the zombies. They barely had time to blink before the blonde devil hunter started hacking wildly with Sparda. Limbs flew left and right as Trish whirled like a dervish, giving no quarter and showing no mercy. Soon, the final zombies head rolled on the blood slicked ground as Trish stood panting amidst the carnage.

She flipped her hair back haughtily before walking back over to Vergil. But before she could reach him, she felt a crushing force suddenly surround her body, swiftly slithering around her, like she was being encircled by snakes. Her vision was instantly blacked out and she felt her breath leave her lungs.. She winced as she felt a piercing pain at several points in her body, as if daggers were being plunged into her skin. Calling upon the last vestiges of her energy before she blacked out, lightning surged out of every pore on Trish's body and the crushing pressure disappeared.

Her sight instantly returned and she found herself on her knees next to the still motionless Vergil, gasping for breath. She looked up to see a man standing before her. No...not a man. Just from the look of him, Trish knew he was a demon.

The demon had taken the form of a tall, powerfully built man wearing nothing but a pair of ragged black pants. His hair was red, resembling a wild mane of dread locks that reached all the way down his back. In fact, upon closer inspection, this hair wasn't really hair at all, but a tangled mass of red tentacles sprouting from his head. The tentacles writhed and slithered wildly around his neck and head. On his hands were a pair of gauntlets, fashioned from a strange iridescent silver metal that seemed to ripple like liquid. The gauntlets were shaped like a pair of ravenous wolves that seemed to visibly snarl and growl, the rippling metal giving the impression that they were alive. Out of the mouths of the wolves snaked hundreds of the red tentacles, but they were different from the ones on his head. They were a darker shade of red, almost black and they ended in arrow-like spikes, barbed and dangerous.

The man said nothing, he simply glared at Trish, his face a mask of animalistic fury, even though he didn't make a sound.

Trish growled and struggled back to her feet. She raised her hand and fired a crackling bolt of lightning at the demon. Instantly, the spiked tendrils entwined with each other to form a barrier between Trish and the demon. The barrier absorbed the lightning, but Trish noticed the tips of several charred tentacles falling to the ground. The wall receded and the injured tentacles retracted back into the gauntlets.

The demon man's eyes flashed red and he began to speak. "I'm assuming you are Trish, former servant of Mundus...?" His voice was cracked and hoarse to the point where it was difficult to make out the words he was saying. Growling, gutteral noises accompanied the pauses in between words.

"Yeah, well what's it to you?" Trish said through gritted teeth, clenching Sparda in both hands.

The demon man chuckled. "Well, well, well. Ain't this interesting. The name's Cain. I've always wanted to get back at that bastard Mundus for taking away my arms," he said, a loud bark accompanying the last word of his sentence. "But unfortunately...Mundus ain't here right now...So I guess you'll have to do!" The demon roared and pointed his gauntlets at Trish, the tentacles writhed faster and wilder than ever.

Trish raised Sparda, ready to defend herself. But before Cain could make a move a blur of red erupted from smoldering ruins of the Devil May Cry building and collided with the demon. Cain was sent sprawling across the concrete, a roar of surprise and anger escaping his lips.

Dante stood between Trish and Cain, a sword held in each hand. In his left was Alastor, and in his right was Rebellion, a keepsake sword from his father and one of his most used weapons.

"What the hell took you so long?" said Trish with a laugh.

"In case you didn't notice, I had a building on top of me."

Cain let loose a high pitched coughing snarl that resembled a laugh as he got to his feet. "Two Sons of Sparda? This is just my lucky day!"

"Trish, teleport Vergil away from here," said Dante, throwing a glance at her over his shoulder.

"Teleport him where? This stuff is a lot harder than it looks, you know."

"I don't know, or care. Just anywhere but here. I'll handle this guy alone."

"What? Are you sure? He looks like trouble."

"Trish, I'm serious. I got it"

Trish sighed and put her hand on Vergil's forehead. There was a flash of lightning, and they were gone.

Smiling, Dante turned back to Cain. He pointed Rebellion at Cain and gave the demon a cocky smirk. "Now, where were we?"


	6. Gravemakers and Gunslingers

**Chapter 6: Gravemakers and Gunslingers**

Cain flashed Dante a grin, giving the devil hunter a full view of his jagged yellow fangs.

"So you're Dante, Son of Sparda? The man who supposedly kicked Mundus' ass?"

Dante shrugged. "What can I say? My reputation precedes me."

Cain grunted and raised his gauntlets. The barbed tentacles began to entwine with each other until they formed a meter long blade spearing out of the wolves' mouths. The tentacle blades rippled and a red liquid began to spread over them and then solidified, giving the twin blades a solid, metallic appearance.

"I met your daddy once, you know. Gave me a hell of a beatdown. Let's see if you're up to scratch with your old man, kid!" the demon punctuated his challenge with a monstrous roar as he raised his newly formed arm-blades above his head. Dante yawned and tapped the tip of Rebellion against the ground.

"Come on, are you gonna posture all day, or do you want to get this little scrap over with? I'm a bit short on time here."

Cain snarled, his pupils dilated and the tentacles sprouting from his head thrashed wilder than ever. Dante gave a small, almost imperceptable nod, and as if that was the signal, both combatants disappeared in a blur of speed, dashing madly towards each other. Dante held his two, swords, Rebellion and Alastor pointed straight ahead of him, ready to skewer Cain on his blades. Snarling, Cain did the same with his two arm blades. The two opponents collided with a colossal bang. The razor sharp tips of Rebellion and Alastor met exactly with the tips of Cain's arm blades. Both opponents grunted with exertion as they each tried to push each other back with the points of their blades. Dante smiled triumphantly as he won the battle of power as Cain's twin blades suddenly gave way, receding back into a mass of tentacles as Alastor and Rebellion drove through them.

Dante's smile was wiped off his face, however. His two swords pierced through the tentacles, the speared right into the mouths of Cain's wolf gauntlets. Instantly, the metallic jaws clamped down and the tentacles bound tightly around the blades of Dante's swords. Cursing, Dante struggled to free his weapons, but Cain held fast, cackling madly as his tentacles began to crawl slowly up Alastor and Rebellion, towards Dante's arms. With a jerk of his arm, Cain sent Alastor spinning away from Dante's grasp, leaving the blade to slide across the floor several meters from the two opponents.

Now with one free hand, Dante let rip with a massive punch to Cain's face. The demon barely noticed it and the tentacles on his own free arm morphed back into their blade form again. The blade extended out and plunged into Dante's stomach. Dante ignored the pain and reached into his coat. He pulled out a gleaming customized handgun. Dante smirked as he pressed the gun to Cain's skull.

"Meet my friend. Ivory." He squeezed the trigger.

Cain's head snapped back, a smoking hole in the middle of his forehead. Dante took the opportunity to rip Rebellion away from the tentacles. Cain staggered backwards, trying to clear his head. Dante pounced on him instantly. Rebellion became a blur as Dante slashed once, twice, three times. Ragged, gaping wounds appeared on Cain's chest. The devil hunter pivoted on one foot, spinning around to gain momentum before coming back around to swing Rebellion at Cain's neck. The sword was deflected away by Cain's left arm blade before it could cleave straight through his neck. Cain launched a counter attack, a quick stab at Dante's chest with his right arm blade, but the half demon easily parried the attack before launching one of his own. The two opponents launched a myriad of slashes and thrusts at each other, neither of them able to get the advantage. The ringing clang of metal on metal filled both their ears. Roaring in frustration, Cain took a wild swing at Dante's head, which the devill hunter easily ducked under and followed up with a brutal elbow to Cain's stomach.

Cain reeled, blood leaking from his mouth, and Dante lunged at him, Rebellion moving faster than the eye could see. A fountain of blood sprayed out from the stump where Cain's arm had been a second before. Dante kicked the now severed arm away and sent Cain crashing to the ground with a powerful strike from Rebellion. Dante thrust downards, aiming for Cain's heart to finish him off. Before he could, Cain raised his gauntlet, the arm blade receding back into tentacles. In insane amount of tentacles began spewing out from the mouth of the gauntlet, and with shocking speed, they interlaced with one another to form a shield of thrashing tendrils to block Dante's blade. Rebellion was deflected with a metallic clang resounding from the collision. Dante was forced to flip backwards to dodge the barbs that stabbed towards him, extending out from the shield.

Dante landed a few meters from Cain, breathing heavily. More and more tentacles extended out from Cain's gauntlets until he was completely hidden from view by a large dome of tentacles, rising up to about six feet from the ground. Clumps oftentacles shot out of the dome and hurtled towards Dante, morphing into spiked cannonballs in mid air. Dante flourished Rebellion, deflecting each projectile. He crouched, ready to lunge and attack, when suddenly several of the crimson tendrils erupted from the ground beneath him and wrapped around his legs, binding them together_. Damnit! The bastard sent them underground_! He raised Rebellion to slash through his bonds, but more tentacles whipped out from the dome and ensnared his hands. Three more of the spiked balls separated from the dome and tore through the air towards Dante.

Alastor suddenly appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, rotating rapidly through the air and crackling wtih electricity. The flying sword intercepted the spiked orbs, incinerating them with lightning and then it proceeded to slice through the tentacles binding Dante's arms.

"Hell yeah!" Dante crowed before cutting away the tendrils crawling up his legs with Rebellion.

Alastor zoomed back into his grip and Dante charged towards the dome, Alastor in his left hand and Rebellion in his right. The devil hunter lungede at the dome and immediately began hacking wildly with both of his blades. Severed tentacles fell squirming to the ground as Dante slashed and hacked with frantic speed. In response, numerous huge two meter long spikes exploded from the dome, spreading outwards at diagonal angles, some spikes erupted vertically from the ground like some kind of sadistically designed tree, creating a small field of blood red spikes. One of the spikes caught Dante directly in the chest, sending the devil hunter flying backwards to land back first on another spike protruding from the ground that pierced straight through his back and exited out his chest.

Dante groaned, and shifted himself in a half hearted attempt to free himself from the spike. "That's really going to hurt in the morning," he groaned. He looked up to see a human shape plummeting through the sky, high above him, heading straight towards him, a blade extending from its remaining arm. The devil hunter's eyes flashed red.

"You've really pissed me off now. It's time to end this."

Dante released his grip on Rebellion and Alastor, and still impaled on the spike, he reached into his coat. He pulled out Ebony and Ivory and pointed up at the rapidly descending figure of Cain. He waited until the demon was just a few meters above him before unleashing hell. A hail storm of bullets halted the descent of Cain, the sheer amount and force of the bullets keeping the demon suspended in the air above Dante. Dante smirked.

"Let's rock."

He was engulfed in red light which swarmed around him, growing in intensity. The light briefly formed a blood red rune around him, before exploding outwards with vicious force. Cain was thrown up into the air by the strength of the explosion , and out of the halo of red light, a winged demonic figure emerged, a sword in each hand. Dante grinned, showing off his fangs as he hurtled through the air towards Cain. Cain raised his gauntlet to defend against the oncoming attack, but Dante pointed both his swords at the demon and began spinning like a corkscrew in the air. He smashed straight threw Cain's defences and skewered the demon wtih both swords right through the chest. Dante ripped the swords out of Cain's body and began hacking at him with his enhanced demonic strength. Cain was helpless against the vicious onslaught as both combatants began plummeting towards the ground.

Dante slashed at Cain one more time before pulling up and away just as Cain landed on several of his own spikes, impaling himself through the chest and stomach. Panting, Dante landed on the ground and released his devil trigger, reverting back to human form. He sheathed Rebellion and Alastor on his back and began walking away. "That was harder than I thought it would be. I haven't faced a strong demon like him in a while."

Dante froze in his tracks as he heard a strange, barking laughter behind him. He turned around to see Cain ripping himself away from the spikes, blood spilling out from his various wounds. The demon stared at Dante, grinning wolfishly. "I haven't had that much fun in centuries! Why, I'm tempted to let you live just so we can do this again!"

Dante growled and ripped Alastor and Rebellion from his back. "You're tougher than I thought. I guess it's time to stop playing around."

Cain smirked and pointed his arm blade at Dante. "Gimme your best shot, kid."

Dante replied by hurling Alastor straight at Cain's face. Cain's tentacle hair extended out and caught the blade before it could puntcture his head, and Cain cackled, clearly enjoying himself. "Nice throw, kid, but you're going to have to do better tha-" He was cut off mid sentence as Alastor suddenly tore free from the tentacles and impaled itself into Cain's stomach.

Cain's eyes widened in shock and he tried to pull the sword free, but Dante suddenly appeared right in front of him in Devil Trigger form, swinging Rebellion. Cain raised his arm to block, but Dante quickly changed the trajectory of his sword so it cleaved straight through Cain's remaining arm, cutting it clean off! Dante didn't give his opponent time to recover. He spinning kicked the sword embedded in Cain's stomach. The force of the kick ripped Alastor from Cain, the blade spinning rapidly, taking huge chunks of Cain's skin with it. Cain's upper half from his stomach upwards was separated from his legs, blood spewing out from the gory mess. Dante grabbed Alastor as it hovered in the air and impaled it into Cain's chest as his upper torso fell away from his legs. Dante kept driving the sword downwards as Cain's back hit the ground, nailing Cain's body to the earth.

As all this happened, Cain was in hysterics. He cackeld madly, even as blood bubbled up into his mouth. Dante growled and raised Rebellion above his head, holding the huge sword with both hands. With a deafening finality, the devil hunter brought the blade down on Cain's neck. The laughter was cut off abruptly as Cain's head was severed from his body. Dante let loose a triumphant roar and kicked Cain's severed head, punting it away football style into the ruins of his former home.

Dante's devil form receded, and he began to walk away, sheathing Alastor and Rebellion on his back.

"Man, that took way too long. Maybe I'm a little rusty," Dante mused to himself as he trudged down the road, away from the carnage that lay behind him.

Behind Dante, the supposedly lifeless legs of Cain twitched.

00000000

When Dante had long since walked off into the distance, both of cain's severed arms began to slither across the ground towards his body. The misshapen limbs dragged themselves across the ground, using the tentacles to pull themselves forward. They finally reached the immobile torso which they had once been attached to, and miraculously, they began reattaching themselves! They used their tentacles to sow themselves back on to the torso, the tendrils acting as stitches of sorts. After a few minutes, the arms were completely reattached and they went to work on sowing their legs back on.

A few more minutes passed as the macabre inprovised surgery was carried out, and the headless body stood up, rolling its shoulders as if it had a cramp. A man, Arkham appeared out of no where in front of it, holding Cain's severed head. It tossed the head to the body which began sowing its head back on in the same fashion as its arms and legs. After a moment, Cain was whole again.

The demon groaned and rubbed his neck. He gave Arkham a glare that exuded killing intent.

"And what the hell are you doing here?"

Arkham shrugged.

"Cassius sent me to make sure you got the job done. And evidently you didn't. You held back. Why?"

Now it was Cain's turn to shrug. "I haven't had a fight like that in centuries. If I'd gone all out, I would have killed the kid for sure. And then where would I be? Bored as shit."

Arkham sighed and pressed his palm against his forehead. "Don't you get it? This isn't a game, this isn't about you having fun. We have a schedule to adhere to, a plan to carry out. It was your mission to capture Dante and Vergil and you failed. Next time, don't hold anything back. It is never wise to underestimate a Son of Sparda. You might just wind up getting killed."

Cain laughed. "Me? Killed? You forget who I am, Arkham."

Arkham' shook his head. "No one is invincible, Cain. Not even you."

Arkham turned his back on Cain and began to walk away but stopped when he felt a cold metallic vice clench his shoulder.

A gruff voice whispered into his ear. "Remember your place, Arkham. I don't take orders from you. I may be the weakest of my brothers, but I am more than enough to kill you five times over. Keep that in mind next time you see fit to lecture me."

Arkham's face remained expressionless, but a brief light flickered in his eyes. A sign of fear perhaps? Or was it something else. Arkham allowed himself a small chuckle. Without another word, both Arkham and Cain disappeared into thin air


	7. Deadmen and Doppelgangers

**Deadmen and Doppelgangers**

The Final Resting Place motel.

The establishment had made quite a name for its self among the more colourful individuals of the city. Something about the seedy, ramshackle building seemed to attract those who had something to hide. The scum of the city flocked to the motel like buzzards to a carcass. The number of unsavoury individuals taking up residence in the motel had opted the owner to establish a "no question's asked policy". A smart business move on his part.

Dante swaggered up to the front desk and rapped his knuckles across the wood. An overweight, balding man glanced up from his magazine and grunted. He didn't seem at all surprised to see the white haired devil hunter toting a gigantic sword bear down on him. Dante winked at his old friend.

"Leo! Long time no see! I've been looking everywhere for Trish, did she pass by here today?"

Leo grunted again and picked up a set of keys from the desk, jingling them at Dante. He had never been a man of many words. The fat man's eyes appeared to flash a bright shade of green, before quickly reverting to their normal dull brown colour. Dante raised an eyebrow. It must have been a trick of the light.

"Room 9, huh? Thanks bud."

Dante took the keys, his fingers brushing against Leo's. For a split second, he felt a strange rush of energy. He paused and looked at Leo. The fat man had returned to his magazine, apparantly in deep concentration. Dante shrugged. He must have been imagining things.

----------

Trish paced back and forth, continously glancing at the motionless figure sprawled out on the bed. Where the hell was Dante? She had tried to reach his cell, but he hadn't answered. The cocky bastard, he was probably off on his own, trying to solve the case and be the big hero, leaving Trish to baby sit his comatose twin brother.

A knock on the door.

Before Trish could open it herself, it swung open and Dante strode in purposefully, his coat swishing behind him.

"You're a hard woman to fi-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Trish grabbed him fiercely by the ear, slammed the door shut, and dragged him into the middle of the room. Dante yelped and shook Trish off. He massaged his sore earlobe and glared at the blonde huntress.

"What was that for?"

"Why didn't you answer your phone!"

Dante reached into his pocket and pulled out the tattered remains of his cellphone. "Being hit by a truck then having a house fall on top of me kinda messed with the reception."

Dante looked around, appraising their room. Every room in the Resting Place was unique in its repulsiveness, and Dante got a kick out of seeing just how disgusting it could get. So far, this one was gunning for first place. A flickering light bulb on the ceiling cast a dim glow which revealed the stains coming in an impressive array of shapes, sizes and colours adorning the walls and floor. The main event came in the form of a gore encrusted hole in the wall. THAT was something Dante hadn't seen here before. A shotgun sat on the floor beneath the hole in a puddle of congealed blood. Evidently, the cleaning lady hadn't even attempted to clean this mess up. Dante doubted this place even had a cleaning lady any more. Dante glanced out the window. Well, at least it had a nice view of the strip club next door.

Vergil lay on a bed as equally stained as the floors and walls, his eyes shut and an oddly serene look on his normally stern face. A line of blood trickled slowly down his jawline from a cut on his cheek. Dante stood over his twin, a smirk plastered across the half demon'sface.

"The kid just looks absolutely precious, doesn't he?"

Trish sighed. "Just adorable. Seriously, Dante. What the hell is going on?"

"Believe me, babe. If I knew, I would tell you."

Dante studied his twin's face, trying to find some sort of clue that he had missed.

"So what's his status, doc?"

Trish frowned, placing a hand on her hip.

"The wounds that were inflicted on him weren't ordinary wounds. They're healing far slower than they should be. It's almost as if something is blocking his demonic power."

"Has he said anything yet?"

Trish shook her head.

"He hasn't woken up since you brought him."

Dante raised his hand, lowering it towards Vergil's face.

"Time to wake up, Vergil."

A hand shot up, encircling Dante's wrist before his fingertips could come into contact with Vergil's skin. The Son of Sparda's eyes flew open, revealing those piercing blue orbs. For a moment, Vergil glared at Dante with that same cold fury Dante had witnessed many times before. As quickly as it appeared, the fury faded away, replaced by a look Dante had never seen before on his twin's face. Fear.

Vergil released Dante's wrist and scuttled away from the devil hunter. He stared at Dante, then Trish, eyes wide with confusion.

"Who are you? What's going on?"

Dante frowned and caught Trish's eye. The blonde huntress looked as bewildered as he was. Dante growled and drew Ebony from his coat. He aimed it squarely at Vergil's face, the pistol gleaming in the dim light.

"Dante!" Trish hissed. "What do you think you're doing?"

Dante jerked his head towards her dismissively. "Trust me, I know what I'm doing."

He glared balefully at his twin, who cowered on the edge of the mattress, shaking uncontrollably.

"Listen to me very closely, Vergil."

"Vergil? Is that my name?"

"Don't change the subject. Drop the bullshit. Tell me what the hell is going on."

Vergil put his arms over his head, squeezing his eys shut.

"I don't know!"

Dante scowled. "So be it."

He squeezed the trigger.

Blue light exploded out of Vergil, stopping the bullet in mid air. Dante was forced backwards a few steps, his gun almost torn from his hand. The blue light faded away and the bullet clattered to the floor. Vergil touched his hand to his face in astonishment. There was no cut to be seen. Vergil stared into Dante's eyes, searching for answers.

The red clad devil hunter smiled. "So it looks like you really are Vergil."

Vergil looked at him, still shocked at what he had just done.

"What am I?"

Dante shook his head in amazement. "I'm getting too old for this shit."

Behind him, Trish laughed.

The phone rang. Dante glanced over his shoulder, spying a dust old phone sitting on a chair in the corner of the room. He walked over and picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Dante."

Dante stiffened, he hadn't heard that voice in over ten years.

"Arkham."

Listening over Dante's shoulder, Trish raised an eyebrow. She had heard Dante say that name before.

"What's the matter, Dante? You don't sound very happy to see me?"

"Don't take it personally, I just don't like you."

Arkham chuckled.

"I'm hurt, Dante. I always thought we got along so well with each other."

"Of course, we got along just fine when you weren't trying to kill me. You know, thinking back on it, didn't Lady put a bullet in your head?"

"You mean my dear daughter, Mary? Indeed she did. But don't you worry, I made sure that she got what was coming to her."

Dante growled. "What have you done with Lady?"

"Nothing at all, my dear boy. I couldn't possibly kill my beloved daughter. However, her fate isn't in my hands anymore. It's in yours."

"What are you talking about?"

"Look out the window."

Dante did as he was told, craning his head out into the night sky. In the alley below him was Lady's bike, her beloved Kalina Ann strapped to its side.

"Get on the bike, and you will find Lady."

Silence. Arkham had hung up. Dante tossed the phone aside and backed up a few steps. Trish looked at him. She knew that look on his face. He was about to do something stupid.

"Dante, what's going on?"

He didn't bother to look at her, keeping his eyes focused on the window. "Trish, take care of Vergil."

Without another word, he dove out of the window. Trish sighed.

"I hate it when he does that."

She whipped around, to fix a frightening glare at Vergil. The Son of Sparda gulped, unsure of what was happening.

"Looks like I'm you're baby sitter for the night."

There was a knock on the door. Trish cocked her head. Had Dante taken the liberty of calling a pizza man? She walked over to the door and opened it. A man in a red coat stood before her. He flicked a strand of white hair out of his eyes.

Trish blinked in surprise.

"Dante?"

The man in red grinned. His eyes flashed bright green before he pulled a gleaming obsidian pistol from his coat and aimed it directly at Trish's forehead.

"Honey, I'm home."

He pulled the trigger.


	8. The Battle Begins

**Chapter 8: The Battle Begins**

Dante's scrunched his eyes shut, but the blinding light still filled his eyes. He felt himself spinning rapidly, his stomach churning.

_God damnit, why the hell did I do this again? Arkham didn't even try to hide the fact that it was a trap, but I still dove right into it. I really need to think things through more._

All of a sudden, his constant rotation came to an abrupt halt and he felt himself fall face first onto a concrete floor. A loud crash signalled that Lady's bike had also come out of the portal they had been sent through. Opening his eyes, Dante struggled to his feet and took a look around at what he'd gotten himself into.

Dante found himself in a huge open space, a flat plain that seemed to stretch on for ever into darkness. Lady's bike lay behind, slightly battered but otherwise still in working condition. By the looks of things he wasn't in New York anymore. Brushing himself off, Dante decided to walk around, but before he could take a step, a familiar looking clown suddenly appeared right in front of him, his appearance accompanied by the unmistakeable sound of jingling bells. Immediately, Ebony and Ivory appeared in Dante's hands and roared into life, a storm of bullets flying towards Jester's head. As quickly as he had appeared, Jester disappeared from view, leaving only his mocking voice.

"Your aim's gotten a little rusty, devil boy."

"And you're just as annoying as ever, Arkham."

Dante whirled around, swinging Rebellion in a wide arc. Jester had reappeared behind him as expected, a manic grin still plastered across his face. The demonic clown ducked under the blade, opening his mouth to further taunt Dante, but was quickly silenced by a resounding boot to the face. Jester was sent sprawling across the floor, a dazed look on his face. Dante sauntered over to the stunned clown, Rebellion slung non chalantly over one shoulder and gripping Ebony loosely in his free hand. He pointed the pistol at Jester's head and let out an exaggerated yawn.

"Is that all you got, clown? I think you're the one who's gotten rusty."

Jester just cackled madly in response and Dante shook his head. Evidently his vocabulary had suffered during his time in hell as well. He tightened his grip around Ebony and prepared to squeeze the trigger, but before he could fire, there was a whooshing sound of displaced air behind him. Dante span around with the quickness of a tiger, just in time to parry the vicious swing of an all too familiar blade. Yamato. Vergil's signature weapon. Rebellion and Yamato collided with a loud clang and the two swords locked together as Dante stared straight into the mismatched eyes of Arkham in his normal human form. The man who was supposed to be lying behind him in a ridiculous clown get up and with an imprint of Dante's boot in his face.

"Rusty? Oh, far from it. At the risk of sounding cliche, this old dog has learnt some new tricks," said Arkham, a shadow of a smile creeping across his scarred face.

With an almighty shove, Dante hurled Arkham backwards a few steps and unleashed an onslaught of bullets from Ebony. Arkham twirled Yamato in a circle, in the exact same manner that Vergil had done, deflecting every single bullet that flew at him. Dante sighed and lowered the smoking gun. "Okay jack ass, I'm going to make this short and sweet. I've got three questions for you. One, where am I. Two, where is Lady and three, why the hell are you still alive?"

Arkham chuckled. "Dante, you should know by now that dead men tell no tales. But for you my dear boy, I shall make an exception."

Dante scoffed and pointed Ebony at Arkham again. "What's that even supposed to mean. Just answer my questions or eat lead. Either way, I'll still kill you, so take your pick."

"My, my, both options sound so appealing, it's difficult to choose."

Dante growled. It was a bad time for Arkham to show that he had a sense of humour.

"I'll start by answering your first question. You are in an area within another dimension, neither hell, heaven or earth, a limbo of sorts where the Order has been trapped."

"The Order?"

"Don't interrupt me, I will get to that later. On to your second question, Mary is being held captive in an abandoned building on Earth in which the Disciples of the Order have summoned a slice of the demonic realm into. Think of it as hell on earth. Literally, a demonic building. Obviously, it is a trap. "

Dante frowned. He hadn't expected Arkham to tell him this much.

"And now your third question. Around the time you fought Mundus, a demon known as Cassius plucked me out of the depths of Hell to serve him. Cassius is part of an ancient sect of demons known as the Order of Sin."

Dante raised an eyebrow and lowered Ebony. "Order of Sin?"

"Yes, let me explain. Many years ago, even before Sparda overthrew the dark lord, Mundus, the demon world was in a state of civil war. Six powerful demons and there underlings waged war on there fellow demons. They were known as the Order of Sin. While the other demons simply wanted to destroy humans and wage war, the Order wanted to end all life as we know it, and destroy not only humans and demons, but Earth and Hell as well. Their leader, Judas was a demon even more powerful than both Mundus and Sparda. He wanted to obliterate all existence, rip the very fabric of space and time and create a new world, one which he could shape to his liking. To do this, he created the other five demons of the Order. He believed that he and his Disciples had become something more than any demon and that every other being was obsolete."

Dante whistled in amazement. Even for a demon, this Judas character had some serious issues.

"With the help of his Disciples, he almost completed the ritual which was required to do it, but Mundus, Sparda and the rest of the demon world banded together and sealed Judas' power away in a secret location on earth while his physical body remained imprisoned and useless in hell. Separated from their master, the five Disciples were sealed into limbo, or as scholars like to call it, Eden."

Dante raised an eyebrow. "Eden?"

"The five were unable to break free from Eden, until you defeated Mundus and the seal was weakened. Now they are able to cross freely from Earth to Eden, and are concocting a plan to release there master, Judas and destroy both our worlds. The seal hasn't broken completely, and the more powerful demons of the Five haven't returned to full strength yet. That is why you aren't dead right now. I believe you've already met Cain, the Fifth Disciple."

Dante was stunned. He wasn't sure whether to believe Arkham or not. "I suppose the dead guys tombing up demons is their doing?"

Arkham nodded.

"Why exactly are you telling me all this?"

"Because while Cassius raised me from the dead to help him defeat you and I am obliged to help him if I wish to continue living, it is not in my best interests for the world to be obliterated."

Dante nodded. It made sense. "You realize, I'm still going to kill you, right?" Dante said, once again aiming Ebony squarely at Arkham's face.

"No, you will attempt to kill me. Whether or not you will succeed is up for debate. Now before I send you off to my dear daughter, keep this in mind. Like you, Cain's big mouth is his greatest weakness."

Before Dante could wring Arkham's neck to ask him what he meant by that cryptic message, he was engulfed by another blinding flash of light, and found himself spinning madly again. Just as before, he landed with a painful thud, this time on what felt like a cold, smooth marble floor. Another ear splitting crash showed that Lady's bike had again been transported alongside Dante. Opening his eyes, Dante got to his feet and dusted himself off, wondering where the hell Arkham had dropped him off this time.

He was in what seemed to be a gigantic hall of some sort, easily the size of a football field, with the walls stretching up for several stories and meeting an ornately decorated concave ceiling. The walls and ceiling were covered with various paintings and carvings of demons of all shapes and sizes, some which Dante recognized. The demons seemed to shift and change, phasing slowly from pose to pose, as if they were more than just decorations. Behind Dante was Lady's battered bike and a pair of huge double doors which no doubt led to the outside world. The main feature of the room was a gigantic, thick marble pillar that stretched from the floor to the ceiling. It was completely devoid of decorations, unlike the rest of the room, but it seemed to glow dimly and pulsate with a palpable energy. The thing that really cemented the hall as being supernatural in origin were the multitudes of floating stone platforms hovering slowly around the pillar in endless circles, some aimlessly floating around the hall at random.

Having taken the time to admire the scenery, Dante began to walk slowly towards the pillar, twirling Ebony in his hand.

"Lady? Hello? Anybody here? C'mon if this is an ambush, get it over with. There's no point in keeping me waiting."

No sooner had he uttered the last syllable in that sentence, something crashed into the devil hunter from behind, sending him tumbling head over heels. He swiftly sprang back up to his feet again, Rebellion appearing in his hand just in time to block a razor sharp blade hurtling straight towards his throat. Dante smirked as he stared right into the grinning face of Cain. "You again, huh? What a shame, I was hoping you bastards would send someone good," Dante said.

Rebellion remained locked in a struggle against Cain's arm blade as the two fought for control. Cain's other blade suddenly shot towards Dante's forehead, but the devil hunter whipped out Alastor with his free hand and managed to deflect Cain's attack. Shoving Rebellion free from the blade lock, Dante lashed out with both blades, planning to carve Cain limb from limb. However, before he could do this, Cain suddenly disappeared from his sight, leaving his blades to slice through thin air.

Cursing, Dante whirled around, searching for his opponent. A snarling laugh made his head snap up to fix his gaze upon Cain stared down at him from a platform hovering about twenty feet above the red clad devil hunter. Dante glared at the demon and sheathed his twin blades.

"Okay jack ass, it's game over for you. Just tell me where Lady is and I'll try to make your death as painless as I can."

Cain crouched down and flashed Dante with another predatorial grin, clearly showing his yellowed fangs.

"Big words for a little boy. You already tried to kill me one, but guess what, junior? You failed! In short, I am invincible!" the demon finished his speech with a maniacal cackle, his tendrils writhing wildly around his head.

Dante smiled and shook his head. "Don't make me laugh. Even if I didn't kill you, don't forget that I literally ripped you limb from limb, and trust me I'll do it again, and again, and again until you finally die. Now answer my question, where's Lady."

Cain responded by waving his arm blade dismissively. "Oh, you mean your little girl friend? She's quite the feisty bitch isn't she? I'd like to have some fun with her before we destroy this world."

Dante's eyes flashed and he drew Rebellion. He'd had enough. "Listen, punk. Tell me where she is now before I beat it out of you."

Cain grinned at Dante's reaction. "My, my, temper temper. She's right..." the demon made a dramatic gesture and pointed to the pillar. "...there!"

The marble surface of the pillar suddenly began rippling like liquid and about half way up, Lady materialized out of the liquid. The pillar returned to normal as Lady remained hanging limp, her back pressed against the pillar, suspended by some unseen force. Dante's eyes widened as he saw her. From where he was standing she seemed dishevelled and unconscious, but otherwise fine.

"There you go, devil boy. Here's your girl, and in mint condition too. But there's a catch." Cain let loose another animalistic shriek of a laugh. "You have to go through me first."

Dante's eyes glowed red as he glared up at Cain. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

The Son of Sparda and the Fifth Disciple of the Order glared into each others eyes, ready to finish a battle that Dante's father had began many years ago.

Cain smirked. "Bring it on."


	9. The Demon of a Thousand Faces

**The Demon of a Thousand Faces**

"Honeeeey! I'm home!"

Before Trish could even register what this strange visage of Dante had just said, a bullet exploded from his gun and tore through the air, heading straight towards her head. Any human would have had no chance of avoiding the bullet at such close range, but luckily, Trish was not human. She was a demon, and an exceptional one at that. She tilted her head slightly to the left so the bullet whizzed straight past her face before dashing towards the imposter, hands crackling with lightning. The doppelganger's grin was wiped clean off his face as he was sent flying out the open doorway to land hard on his back in the hallway.

Trish threw a glance over her shoulder, checking on Vergil. The Son of Sparda lay prone on the floor in a fetal position, eyes darting wildly back and forth, looking for a way to escape. Trish rolled her eyes. Pathetic.

"How the mighty have fallen..." she muttered before turning back to where she expected to see the doppelganger still stunned and lying on its back. But instead she saw a lithe reptilian creature lunging towards her, claws outstretched and snarling wildly. Trish backpedaled, swiftly drawing Sparda from her back.

_A Blade? I haven't seen one of those since Mundus died...What the hell is going on here?_

The legendary blade easily repelled the Blade's attack, but before Trish could counter, the demon's shape seemed to ripple and shift and it suddenly transformed into a Hell Pride. Trish's eyes widened as the Hell Pride slashed its scythe at her. Nothing was making any sense. First it was Dante, then it was a Blade and now a Hell Pride? She easily blocked the strike and shoved the demon back, launching a vicious counter slash at its neck. However, before Sparda could decapitate the demon, it rippled again and transformed into a Fetish, flaming shuriken-like weapons raised to deflect Trish's attack. Sparda was stopped dead in its tracks by the Fetish's strange weapons, the ethereal blade was jarred in Trish's hands and she was forced to roll to the side to avoid being roasted alive by a gout of flame.

Trish landed on her knees, hands gripping Sparda tightly and ready to spring up and tear the demon apart limb from limb. But before she could, she froze as she felt a cold steel edge pressed against her neck. She cast her eyes upwards and instead of staring into the malformed demonic face of a Fetish, she found herself gazing upon the smirking face of a man. She would have considered him rather handsome too if it wasn't for the rapier-like blade he was holding against her throat.

"My dear lady, I believe we've started off on the wrong foot," the man said, his voice as smooth as silk, almost hypnotic.

Everything about him seemed sophisticated, from his sharp attire of a dark suit and tie to the pitch black bowler hat he wore over a tangled mop of dark hair. Upon closer inspection, his face seemed almost too handsome, as if it had been painted or carved by a gifted artist. With his free hand, he brushed aside a few stray strands of soft dark hair from his eyes, revealing striking emerald orbs. Trish glanced over at Vergil. He still lay on the floor, eyes wide and staring at the man, a look of horror on his face. It was as if he recognized the man. Trish snapped her gaze back upon the man, she could worry about that once she had killed him.

"Please excuse my rude behaviour, I should have at least introduced myself before attempting to kill you," the man said.

"I have many names, the Demon of a Thousand Faces, the Bane of Troy, the Fourth Disciple of the Order. But you my dear lady can refer to me by my true name. Antenor."

He winked and withdrew his blade as he bowed to Trish, giving an extravagant flourish with his rapier. Trish smirked. Big mistake. She lunged forward, ready to impale him on her blade, but instead, there was a colossal bang and the demon was blown off of his feet. Trish whipped around to see Vergil swaying on his feet, the shotgun that had been laying on the floor was gripped tightly in his quivering hands and he had a wild look in his eyes. He sank to his knees, breathing heavily.

Trish moved to help him, but a horrific roar turned her attention back to where the demon, Antenor was laying. Antenor's body began to ripple and warp once again, but this time it began to swell, the floor underneath groaning and cracking from the weight off Antenor's rapidly expanding body. There was a brilliant flash that momentarily blinded Trish as she suddenly felt a searing heat fill the room. Antenor's body had disappeared and in its place was terrifying monster from her past. The monster resembled a gargantuan spider with a scorpion's tale, lava seaping from various orifices in its hardened armour shell. Standing in front of Trish was what appeared to be the Phantom. One of Mundus' most powerful minions.

Trish gaped as the gigantic spider slowly crawled towards her, its tail scraping against the roof, barely contained by the tiny room. Vergil scrambled backwards, and pressed his back agains the wall, breathing quickly and shaking like a leaf. Trish couldn't believe what was happening. She was sure that Dante had killed Phantom so many years ago. No...this wasn't Phantom, it was worse, something far more powerful.

The monstrous demon's face came to a halt inches from her own, lava dripping from its fangs. Trish winced as she felt the intense heat from the demon's breath scorching her skin. It spoke, the rumbling growl of a voice exactly the same as Trish remembered.

"I believe we have wasted enough time on introductions, my dear Trish. I regret to inform you that you are about to die."

These words seemed to shake Trish out of her stupor. She tightened her grip on the hilt of Sparda and shrugged.

"Funny. I was about to say exactly the same thing to you." The demon roared, the walls threatening to burst from the cacophonous sound and Trish's eyes flashed, her entire body crackling with lightning as a smile slowly crept across her face. It was time for some fun.

**_OOooooOOOooooOOO_**

The air was filled with the sound of metal ringing upon metal as Dante and Cain duelled high above the ground, suspended upon hovering platforms. Rebellion clashed against Cain's blade with a resounding clang before the Fifth of the Order leapt away from the floating platform to land on another one, barely avoiding being run through by Alastor. Dante leaped after him, blades spinning wildly, but no sooner had his feet landed on the platform, Cain leaped to another one, firing off a series of barbs from his gauntlets at Dante. The devil hunter span his sword, deflecting the barbs and leaped towards Cain again, but just as before, the demon jumped ship onto another nearby platform. Dante growled, this was getting frustrating. Returning Alastor and Rebellion to his back, he pulled out Ebony and Ivory and unleashed a hail of bullets at his opponent. Cain just roared with laughter, not even bothering to deflect the bullets as they tore into his skin. Still cackling madly, the demon somersaulted away as a red blur rocketed through the air and obliterated the platform he had just been standing on.

Dante plummeted downwards to land on a lower platform, stone debris from the platform he had just destroyed raining around him. This little game of cat and mouse was getting ridiculous. The half demon glared up at Cain, hovering above him with a confident smirk on his face.

"Can't keep up, kid? You know what, let's make this game a little more interesting."

Cain snarled and stamped his feet on the ground. Suddenly the gigantic pillar behind him pulsated and glowed. Dante's eyes widened as he saw Lady suddenly fall forward, freed from whatever force that had been keeping her suspended on the pillar. her unconscious body began to plummet towards the ground far below. Dante cursed and dashed forward, leaping from platform to platform in an attempt to reach Lady before she reached the ground. Cain cackled and dove off his platform, landing with a thud on the platform Dante had just landed on. Not pausing for a second, Dante leaped straight over Cain's head to the next platform, turning in mid air to fire a parting shot with Ivory into the demon's back.

Bounding from that platform to the next, Dante lunged out into open space and scooped Lady up in mid air, corkscrewing through the air. He rotated in the air as he hurtled towards the pillar and planted his feet on its marble surface, using it to spring off onto a nearby platform. Crouching down, he gave Lady a quick once over, checking her condition. There seemed to be some bruising, but other than that she appeared to be fine. Suddenly, the platform that was keeping the two of them afloat simply exploded, chunks of stone flying everywhere. Out of the corner of his eye, Dante saw a long-spear like projectile composed of writhing tendrils embedded in one of the chunks of stone. Dante fell downwards, Lady still clutched in his arms, there didn't seem to be any nearby platforms for him to grab onto to halt their fall.

The devil hunter landed hard on his feet and rolled, lessening the impact. Lady slipped free from his grasp and rolled away to come to a halt near her bike. Dante sprang up to his feet and looked up to see another writhing spear shooting straight towards him. He dodged out of the way as the spear collided with the ground, burying its self into the hard marble floor. Dante opened fire with Ebony and Ivory as Cain bounded from platform to platform, using them as cover from Dante's bullets.

"Stand and fight like a man, you annoying little prick!" Dante roared in frustration.

Instantly, there was a thud behind him of someone's feet hitting the floor. Dante whirled around, Alastor and Rebellion appearing in his hands in an instant, just in time to block a series of lightning fast stabs from Cain's arm blades. Dante back pedaled furiously, struggling to defend himself against Cain's vicious onslaught. His shoulder flared with pain as one Cain's blades slipped past Dante's guard and sliced the half demon in the shoulder. Taking evasive maneuvers, Dante took to the air, flipping gracefully over Cain's head, but as soon as his feet hit the floor, Cain was already rushing towards him, slashing wildly with his twin blades. Dante was forced on the devensive again as the speed of both opponent's blades increased.

Dante was forced backwards step by step, a bead of sweat trickling down his forehead. Swinging Alastor and Rebellion together as one, Dante's two swords collided with Cain's, the blades locking together once again and it quickly diverged from a contest of speed to one of strength. Now it was Dante who had the advantage as he shoved Cain backwards, sparks cascading from their blades as they grated together. Dante grinned and span his blades, breaking the blade lock, and forcing Cain's arms down to his sides.

"It's showtime!"

He stabbed forward with both his blades and began jackhammering them back and forth at break neck speed. Cain was utterly defensless as Dante's blades became blurs, stabbing into his body repeatedly and without mercy. Dante drove Alastor into Cain's chest one last time, sending the demon flying back several feet to land hard on his back, blood pouring from numerous wounds on his body. Dante smirked and slowly sauntered over to where Cain lay prone and unmoving, letting his swords swing casually from his hands. He leaned over Cain's body, a mockingly quizzical look on his face.

"What's the matter? Can't take the heat?"

No sooner had he finished speaking did a hard kick connect solidly with his chin as Cain's foot shot up, knocking Dante clean off his feet. The devil hunter quickly kicked himself back up to his feet and saw Cain high above him, bounding from platform to platform once again. Dante's eyes glowed red. It was time to finish this.

His body was engulfed in red light as he activated his devil trigger. Glorious power surged through every vein in the Dante's body as he transformed into his demonic state. The half devil leaped into the air, his newly formed wings powering him through the air with amazing speed. Cain's manic platform jumping came to a halt as he paused on one platform and glanced down, only to see a winged devil ascending rapidly towards him. Seemingly unphased, Cain raised his gauntlets, the arm-blade dettaching its self and hurtling towards Dante.

Dante simply slapped the projectile away and picked up speed. He began to corkscrew rapidly threw the air and in an instant, he smashed straight through the platform Cain was standing on, pulverising the stone to little more than dust. Cain was thrown up into the air from the impact, and in the blink of an eye, Dante materialized out of thin air right in front of him, a grin set into his demonic face. With inhuman strength, the devil hunter drove Alastor into Cain's body, the force of the strike, sending them both speeding through the air to collide with the pillar. Blood spilled out of Cain's mouth as he was impaled to the pillar by Alastor. Dante released his grip on the sword and hovered backwards to land on a nearby platform, his devil trigger fading away. Cain was left impaled on the pillar by Alastor, drenched in his own blood and chuckling softly to himself.

Dante frowned. "What's so funny?"

Cain looked up, staring Dante in the eye. He grinned maliciously, licking his lips.

"Oh, It's just that I haven't had this much fun in centuries. But I guess I better do my job. Its time to end this."

A silver light began to emanate from Cain's gauntlets which soon engulfed the demon entirely. Dante crouched down into a fighting stance. Evidently, this fight was far from over.


	10. Devil May Howl

**Chapter 10: Devil May Howl**

Dante coiled his fingers around Rebellion, ready to spring forward at the drop of a hat. Rather than taking advantage of Cain's immobile state, the devil hunter instead bided his time, waiting to see what trick his adversary had up his sleeve. The demon was enveloped in a swirling cocoon of silver light which pulsated rapidly, a palpable heat emanating from it with each convulsion.

Dante yawned, easing out of his fighting stance into a more relaxed pose, letting Rebellion rest casually on his shoulder.

"As much as I'd love to sit pretty and watch your little light show-" before the Son of Sparda could finish his witty anecdote a sudden, intensely bright flash of light erupted from the cocoon, forcing Dante to squeeze his eyes shut to avoid being permanently blinded. Even through his eyelids, the light was so excruciatingly bright; Dante swore he could feel his retina's sizzling. Dante instinctively crouched back down into a fighting stance, his eyes closed, holding Rebellion perpendicular to his left shoulder and ready to cleave any assailant in two. Even though he was temporarily bereft of vision, Dante's other senses were so sharp that he had utter confidence that he could repel any attack.

Surprisingly, no attack came. Dante opened his eyes, his vision quickly returning to him thanks to his demonic blood. He scoffed, seeing Cain's transformed state.

"Is that it? What is it with you demon's and going for the ugliest look possible?"

A writhing mass of silver tentacles had replaced the demon's body, resembling an unearthly living cloak. Gone were any limbs resembling arms or legs, the only remotely humanoid part of Cain's new form was his head. Even that had warped beyond recognition. His face now resembled that of a completely hairless wolf's, complete with an elongated snout, pointed ears and wicked yellow fangs.

The strange creature remained latched onto the pillar, keeping its self aloft by embedding its barbed tentacles into the marble surface. Dante cocked his head to the side, staring into the demon's yellow slit-like eyes with a mockingly quizzical look.

"So what are you supposed to be? The mutant off spring of a dog and an octopuss? I guess I should just start calling you octo-puppy from now on, huh?"

Cain responded with a distorted yelp, a cry that could have either been one of rage or unbridled exhilaration. A sword emerged from the disembodied shroud of tentacles that was his torso, held aloft by several of the silver tendrils. Alastor crackled with electricity as more and more tentacles began to surround its blade. The tentacles pulsed with a bright silver light as they entangled the weapon, and for a brief second, Cain's beast like face contorted in effort.

Dante raised an eye brow.

"What the hell do you think you're doing with my sword?"

An earsplitting snap filled the room followed by what sounded like the rumbling of thunder, fading slowly away into silence. The two pieces of dull metal which had once comprised Alastor plummeted to the floor far below, landing with a hollow clatter.

Dante glared at Cain, whose fang filled mouth had split into a monstrous grin.

"Oops. Clumsy me, I guess I just don't know my own strength."

A bunched mass of tendrils extended from the main cloud, forming a disembodied hand. A lone finger protruded from the misshappen fist, a ridiculous one-fingered salute. Dante would have laughed if he wasn't on the verge of leaping at Cain and tearing him apart.

"That, was a very, VERY bad idea," growled Dante.

"What? No more jokes? Finally, let's get down to business!" cackled Cain, his tendrils writhing in earnest as a primal roar was unleashed from his gaping maw. Dante blinked in surprise as his sharp eyes caught a flash of colour in Cain's mouth. A silver jewel was embedded in Cain's tongue, clearly visible as the demon's jaws widened further in his animalistic posturing. The jewel pulsated with a strange light, strange swirling patterns dancing inside the crystal, barely visible even with Dante's superhuman vision.

_A demon who's into tongue studs? Possible, but not likely. This must be what Arkham meant. Probably would have been easier to tell me up front, crazy bastard. Well, it's worth a shot._

Just as Cain's throaty roar began to die out, a pistol appeared in Dante's hand, the glistening weapon rattling from the force of the bullet exploding from it's tip. The bullet soared towards Cain's open mouth as the demon's eyes widened slightly in surprise. Cain's mouth snapped shut, preventing the bullet from reaching its target. Instead, it tore into Cain's nose, the force of the projectile jerking Cain's head back and elliciting a snarl of pain from the demon. A second later, a multitude of tentacles sprung from the main body of the demon to surround it's head in a make shift helmet. Dante smirked. Arkham had been telling the truth. The jewel was the only way to bring this bastard down.

The devil hunter disappeared in a vortex of red as Cain bore down on him with surprising speed, thrashing tendrils crushing the platform he had been standing on into dust. More tentacle's lashed out to another nearby pillar, reeling Cain in before he plunged to the ground. Another flash of red. A whirlwind of cold steel tore into Cain, severing his connections to the pillar that kept him suspended above ground. Dante ripped into Cain with unbridled ferocity, shreds of severed tentacles flying through the air as both Dante and his adversary plummeted towards the ground. A slash from Rebellion shredded Cain's neck, his decapitated head drifting away from the melee. The shroud of tentacles stabbed at Dante, barbs ripping into his skin from all angles, but Dante continued his assault without faltering, his blade moving at blinding speeds.

Dante's feet hit the floor and he shrugged off the impact like it was nothing. Even gravity didn't want to mess with a Son of Sparda. The devil hunter pivoted stylishly on one foot, throwing off the remaining tentacles which fell to the floor with a limp thud. The ground around him was covered with shredded tendrils, stirring feebly in what were no doubt futile attempts to take vengeance upon the half demon. Dante smirked and sheathed Rebellion. He walked slowly towards Cain's decapitated head, still encased in it's self made helmet.

"And here I was hoping for a challenge."

Dante held Ebony loosely in his hand, lowering it to point at Cain's head.

"Any last words?"

The head stirred and Dante heard a muffled laugh coming from it. Dante raised an eye brow, even though he couldn't see the demon's face, he could have sworn the smug bastard was grinning up at him.

"Yeah. Look behind you, kid."

Dante was suddenly knocked off his feet, several sharp objects buried in his back as he fell flat on his face. He scrambled to his feet, kicking away his assailants. A silver wolf comprised entirely of the tentacles which Dante had sliced and diced leapt at the devil hunter's face. Dante blinked in surprise, and on pure reflex he whipped out Rebellion, slicing the creature in two. Out of the corner of his eye, he spied another wolf lunging at him from the side. Once again, Rebellion became a blur and the wolf fell at Dante's feet in two separate pieces.

Dante grinned, on the verge of bursting into laughter. This was getting pathetic. Was this the best the big bad Order of Sin had to offer? His grin faded from his face as he looked down. The pieces of the wolves that he had carved up were writhing wildly, more tentacles sprouted to form limbs, heads, tails. In less than a second, there were four wolves instead of the two that Dante had eviscerated.

They all pounced at Dante in unison, but the devil hunter somersaulted over their heads- only to land in the clutches of another wolf which had materialized from the shredded tentacles littered across the ground. The creature was only half formed, its hind legs still a jumbled mass of thrashing tendrils. Dante batted it away with the flat of his blade and side stepped another wolf hurtling towards him.

Dante cursed and span around sending another wolf flying into the air with Rebellion, base ball style. All around him wolves were rising up from the limp scraps of flesh that covered the floor, each one beginning to slowly advance towards Dante as soon as it was formed. Amongst the increasing masses of demonic wolves, Dante spotted a silver humanoid form slowly pulling its self to its feet. Dante groaned and sheathed Rebellion on his back.

"You know what? You're really starting to get on my nerves."

As soon as his sentence finished, the wolves closest to him lunged. Dante pivoted on one foot, his other leg extended in the air, and caught a number of wolves with a lightning fast kick that sent them scrambling across the floor to collide with their counter parts. He ducked and weaved past the wolves' attacks, throwing in swift jabs and kicks whenever the opportunity arrose. A bead of sweat rolled down the devil hunter's face as he narrowly avoided a wolf's snapping jaws and delivered a devastating kick that sent the wolf spiralling through the air. Dante knew he couldn't dodge like this forever, the numbers game would eventually get to him. He needed to think up a plan, some way to kill these things. He sighed, punting aside a wolf and laying another out with a hard elbow.

Planning had never been his strong suit.

He took to the air, flipping gracefully over the heads of the ravenous pack. Without warning, something collided with his back and he plunged back down into the veritable ocean of demonic canines. He heard a faint snarl of a laugh in the distance. Instantly, they pounced, ripping and tearing at every part of his body.

_Okay, this isn't going quite as well as I had hoped. Time to kick it up a notch._

A wave of crimson energy erupted from the half demon's body as he activated his devil trigger. The air above him was filled with silver as wolves were sent flying away from him by the shockwave of power. Dante grinned.

"Score one, Dante."

A sound caught his ear and he looked up to see a missile zooming above him, heading straight towards the marble pillar. It collided with the pillar and the resulting explosion caused the very air in the room to warp and distort. A spiderweb of cracks spread all across the surface of the pillar and it began to pulsate erratically, chips of marble breaking off with each pulse.

Dante whipped around to see Lady leaning heavily on her bike, Kalina Ann gripped tightly in her arms. Dante couldn't help but smile as he let his devil trigger fade away.

"Good to see you back, babe."

Lady glared at Dante, her eyes wild. Dante gulped. Maybe calling her 'babe' at a time like this wasn't the best of ideas. Rather than reprimanding the Son of Sparda for his choice of words, Lady simply growled, her eyes glinting menacingly.

"Follow my lead."

Her voice was raw and strained, as if she was having trouble breathing. Despite this, she hefted Kalina Ann with ease and fired another missile into the pillar. This time, the entire room shook fragments of stone raining down from the ceiling. The wolves, fully recovered from Dante's attack were whipped into a frenzy and instead of leaping towards Dante, they all rushed towards the female devil hunter.

In the blink of an eye, Dante was in front of Lady, arms and legs flashing in a startling array of punches and kicks. The wolves were beaten back, once again flying through the air from the force of the half demon's blows.

"Care to let me in on your little plan?"

Lady sighed and punted aside a stray wolf that had gotten through Dante's defence.

"If you actually payed attention every once in a while, I wouldn't have to tell you this. This place is basically another dimension forced to maintain a presense here on Earth, using an ordinary building as its medium."

Dante cracked the heads of two wolf's together before throwing them both aside. "Yeah, I know all that already. What does that have to do with anything?"

"It takes a hell of a lot of energy to keep this little piece of Hell on earth intact. That pillar over there is emitting a constant flow of demonic energy which is the only thing that's keeping this place from collapsing." Lady winced and placed a hand on her ribcage. "Damage it too much, and this whole place goes up in flames."

Dante nodded.

"Got it."

Rebellion disappeared from his hands, instantly replaced by Ebony and Ivory. A maelstrom of bullets hurtled towards the pillar. The floor began to crack and tremble, an unearthly grinding sound ripping through the air. Huge chunks of stone began to fall from the ceiling, some of them making wolf pancakes as they fell to the ground.

"That should do it!" shouted Lady over the cacophany of sound. "Let's get out of here!"

Dante nodded, knocking aside a trio of demon's with a well placed spinning kick. Lady swung onto her bike, and Dante followed suit as Lady gunned the engine, the loud roar of the machine overriding the strange grinding sound. A missile erupted from Kalina Ann, lighting up the double doors which barred their exit with a brilliant explosion of fire. Through the now open doorway was freedom.

"Hold on tight!"

The bike roared to life, flames blazing out of the exhaust pipe and in an instant, the pair was gone. The only trace of them left was the smell of burning rubber. A second later, blinding light filled the hall, before the roof caved in, crushing all that was left inside it under tonnes of unforgiving stone.

The bike screeched to a halt in the middle of a road, a car swerving to avoid the pair of demon hunters. A horn sounded, signalling the driver's anger at their sudden appearance. A dilapidated two-story house stood before them, it's ordinary exterior giving no clues to it's supernatural interior. It gave an almighty creaking sound before suddenly collapsing in on its self. In mere seconds, it became nothing more than a smoking pile of rubble.

Lady breathed a sigh of relief. She slid off her bike, legs shaking involuntarily. Dante got off the bike, massaging his neck.

"Well, babe, looks like I saved your ass again," chided the devil hunter, a cocky grin on his face.

Lady scowled.

"Shut up. I didn't need your help. I was fine by mys-" her knees buckled and she fell to the ground, coughing violently. She wiped a trickle of blood from her chin and glared up at the red clad half-demon. She expected to look up at a smug grin, but instead there was a look of genuine concern on the half demon's face. Oh God, that was even worse. The last thing she needed from him was pity. She looked down, avoiding his gaze.

A crystalline green orb rolled towards her. Surprised, she picked it up, looking back up at Dante. The devil hunter shrugged. "Thought you might need it."

Lady sighed. She clenched her fist, crushing the orb in her hand. Instantly, the pain that burned through her rib cage disappeared and she felt new strength flow through her. She got to her feet and glanced at Dante. The concerned look had been replaced by the usual self assured smirk. Much better.

Without warning, she punched Dante in the arm as hard as she could. Dante yelped, rubbing his shoulder. "What the hell was that for?"

Lady shrugged, smiling innocently. "Thanks."

Dante growled. "If you keep thanking me like that, I won't be able to use my right arm, demon blood or not."

Lady punched him again and laughed.

She turned back to the ruined house, ignoring the startling variety of curse words Dante spat at her. The huntress shook her head and smirked. Lady had to admit, despite his idiocy, the big red moron had grown on her over the years. It was hard to believe that a few years ago, all that had been on her mind was wiping him off the face of the Earth.

Lady frowned. Would she even go as far to say that the half demon was a _friend?_ Her frown deepened. A demon for a friend. She wasn't sure if she would ever get used to that notion.

The huntress was snapped out of her reverie by the sound of Dante clearing his throat. She turned around and caught Dante staring at her, an amused expression on his face. With a jolt of surprise, Lady saw something else there too. Something that Lady hadn't taken the time to notice before. The way Dante looked at her, eyes travelling up her body to stare into her eyes. Lady matched his gaze, staring into those warm, azure orbs. She quickly looked away, her heat beating fast.

What the _hell_ was that?

Thinking quickly, Lady spoke up, breaking the silence.

"So it's over just like that? I didn't think a demon of the Order of Sin would be such a push over."

Dante raised an eyebrow. He supposed that he shouldn't be that surprised about Lady's knowledge of the Order, given her extensive knowledge of anything and everything to do with demonology. "He's not dead. But having a dimension implode on you is sure to slow the asshole down."

As if in response to that statement, the ground began to rumble.

Several things happened in the space of a single second. The mountain of smoking rubble suddenly exploded, huge chunks of stone and wood flying everywhere. Lady and Dante flipped backwards, avoiding the debris raining down on them. A car zoomed past and was clipped by a hunk of rock, causing the vehicle to swerve out of control and collide with a utility pole. The driver slumped against the wheel, motionless. Another huge boulder found its way to Lady's bike, crushing it into little more than scrap metal.

Lady's eyes widened. Now it was personal.

Dante drew Rebellion and looked up, whistling in amazement.

"Okay, I did NOT see this coming."

A gigantic silver figure towered over him, at least three stories tall. It possessed a humanoid body, with huge hulking ape-like arms that ended with savagely curved talons on each finger. Its skin writhed wildly, comprised of what appeared to be a ridiculous amount of Cain's tendrils knotted together.

A wolf's head topped the monstrous creature, glaring at Dante with blank eyes that were little more than large holes between the thrashing tentacles. The wolf's mouth opened wide, releasing a thunderous roar. Dante's sharp eyes spotted something inside the creature's gargantuan maw. A head. Cain's head, devoid of the make shift armour which the demon had fashioned was suspended inside the creature's mouth by a number of tendrils snaking from its cranium. No doubt, the persistent bastard was the one controlling this monstrosity.

Dante laughed, a devilish spark in his eyes. This was just too much fun. He pointed Rebellion at the colossal beast.

"Okay, big guy. It's been a blast, but I'm afraid your little routine is getting a tad old. It's time to finish this."

The demon snarled in response and clenched its enormous hands into fists.

Dante smirked.

"You want me? Come get me."


	11. Exit Stage Right

**Exit Stage Right**

Speed. That was the aim of the game. Stick and move. Float like butterfly, sting like nuke. Or something like that. Trish didn't waste time with details. Trish rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding a fireball that left a smoking crater in the wall behind her. She lunged forward, Sparda slicing through the air towards her target. The legendary blade was deflected off of Antenor's newly formed armoured hide with a hollow clang accompanying the impact. Trish backflippd away, avoiding the colossal arachnids snapping pincers.

The golden haired huntress slid to a halt, her back against the wall. Trish rubbed her face with her forearm, wiping away the beads of sweat that were gathering. The temperature in the room had shot up exponentially, the air in the room quaked with a visible heat shimmer. She threw a quick glance over her shoulder at Vergil, still cowering in the corner and clutching the shotgun like a stuffed toy. She snorted. Seeing the once deadly and menacing Nelo Angelo like this was simply hilarious. Still, having a dead weight to protect didn't really help her situation at all.

She sprang away from the wall, once again avoiding a ball of flame, but this time, Antenor's claws struck at her with surprising speed and caught her with a glancing blow. The floor gave an unsettling groaning sound at the Antenor's sudden movement. It hadn't been built to carry such immense weights. Trish staggered backwards, wincing from the pain and leapt away to avoid another claw swipe.

Fighting in these cramped conditions was doing her no favours. She had to either get out into a more open space, or put some distance between her and Antenor. The smouldering demon scuttled towards her, pincers snapping menacingly. The floor one again creaked from the creature's weight. A lightning bolt struck the floor in front of the creature. It looked down, appearing almost puzzled that Trish had missed her target.

Trish smiled and waved at the demonic arachnid.

"Have a nice trip!"

The floor gave a final defeated groan, and suddenly, the Phantom doppelganger disappeared from sight, a gaping hole in the floor where it had once been. Trish smiled and blew on her smoking finger.

She grabbed Vergil's wrist, wrenching him to his feet. "We need to get out of here."

Vergil nodded meekly, his shaking hands still wrapped tightly around the shotgun. Trish leaned out the window, and gulped. This wasn't good. A bullet blew a chunk out of the windowsill, narrowly missing her head. A mob of living dead thrashed beneath her, throwing themselves against the brick walls of the motel in their blood crazed frenzy. Some of them toted weapons such as pistols and rifles, though evidently their aim was lacking as several bullets drilled into the wall, no where near their target.

Trish frowned, weighing up their options. There was no way she had the energy left to teleport both her and Vergil any significant distance. And she couldn't fight through that mob while protecting Vergil at the same time. Their best option was to hop from roof top to roof top until they reached safety. The huntress backed up a few steps, dragging Vergil with her. She gauged the distance between the window and the roof of the strip club adjacent to the motel.

"Vergil," she said. "How do you feel about heights?"

The half demon looked at her, puzzled. "What do you mean?"

Before he knew it, Vergil found himself hurtling out the window, arms flailing. He landed in a heap on the roof of the strip club. He staggered to his feet, surprised that he wasn't in an incredible amount of pain. A light thud signalled that Trish too had crossed the gap without incident. She shoved Vergil forward, urging him to hurry.

"Come on, we don't have much time. That Antenor bastard is probably right behind us."

"Oh my dear, he is the least of your worries."

Trish whirled around, lashing out with Sparda at the source of the voice, but found that here blade cut through nothing but thin air. What felt like a boot collided with her back and she felt herself propelled through the air. She plunged off of the roof and managed to land on her feet, rolling to lessen the impact. The huntress found herself surrounded. Reeking legions of undead formed a tight circle around her. Trish cursed. How could she have let herself get caught off guard like that?

She readied her fighting stance, daring any one to approach her. "Bring it on," she hissed. One of the undead broke from the circle and lunged towards her. Trish tensed, preparing to cleave it in half, but before it could reach her, it crumpled to the ground, its decapitated head suddenly rolling at Trish's feet. Trish kicked the head away, looking for the source of the attack.

The wall of undead soldier's parted and a dapper gentleman in a dark suit sauntered through, tipping his bowler hat at Trish. He raised his hand and a shuriken-like blade flew into it, quickly transforming into an elegant rapier.

"Evening, Madame."

Trish growled, not bothering to reply.

"I thought that it would be more fitting for you to die by my merciful hand rather than be torn apart by these savages. However, if you hand over that sword now, I'll consider letting you live."

Trish frowned. She should have known that it was Sparda that they were after. The huntress smirked. This asshole was in for a surprise if he thought that he stood a chance.

"Come and get it."

Antenor beamed at her. "I thought you'd never ask."

In an instant, a jaguar-like creature replaced the dark suited man and pounced at the blonde huntress with shocking speed. The beast swiped at Trish with its strange scythe like front legs but the blonde woman easily side stepped and launched a counter strike at the creature's unprotected back. Suddenly, the jaguar was a jaguar no longer, and Sparda connected with a hard, dome-like shell. A reptilian head shot out from under the shell, snapping at Trish's legs. Trish jerked her legs away from the snapping jaws and launched another slash at the demon's shell, her blade crackling with electricity. This time, obsidian spikes erupted all over the dome, deflecting Sparda once again. Trish rolled to the side as the dome suddenly began to spin rapidly and surged towards her.

A bolt of lightning shot out of Trish's palm and hurtled towards Antenor. Yellow electricity crackled around the dome which spun out of control into the surrounding undead. Gore and severed body parts flew everywhere as the creature's spikes massacred the zombies. Another lightning bolt zipped towards the demon, but it changed again, assuming the form of a reptilian Blade which dodged the lightning and lunged straight towards Trish.

Trish side stepped around Antenor's attack and launched a powerful slash that sent the demon straight up into the air. Trish followed suit and began to unleash a devastating combination of slashes at the airborne demon, keeping it helplessly suspended in mid air. The Blade began to shimmer once again, and this time it became a gargoyle-like creature which powered straight through Trish's attacks and gripped the huntress in a bone crushing bear hug. The gargoyle flapped its stone wings and began to ascend, Trish still in its vice like grip.

Trish squirmed desperately, trying to wriggle free from Antenor's grasp.

"Fine," she gasped, sucking in as much air as she could. "Let's see how you like this!"

Electricity surged through her body and the dueling pair were engulfed in golden light. When the light faded, Trish found that she was still clutched in the gargoyle's relentless arms. Antenor ignored her outburst of energy, his stone form apparently providing him with immunity from her attack. He continued to flap his wings, climbing higher and higher. Trish looked down and cursed. They were a lot higher than she would have liked. They were both going down whether Antenor liked it or not.

Trish stopped struggling and smiled at the gargoyle. "So you want the sword do you?"

The gargoyle halted its ascent, hovering in the air.

"Go get it!"

Trish released her grip on Sparda and the sword began to plummet towards the earth. The demon let loose a disembodied shriek, released Trish from it's grasp and plunged downwards in pursuit of the sword. Free of her stony prison, the huntress latched onto the gargoyle's tail as it dived towards the ground. Trish pivoted in the air and positioned herself so that her foot was driven into the back of the demon's head, sending it pitching into a rapid nose dive. The gargoyle snatched at the ear and managed to grip Sparda in its claws, a triumphant roar erupting from it's maw before its face collided with the earth. The road split and cracked as the demon was spiked into the ground with tremendous force. Trish leapt away from the crater, squinting through the cloud of dust that had been thrown up by their impact.

Trish smirked and pried Sparda from the gargoyle's stony fingers.

"Not so tough now are you?"

Trish began to walk away, when suddenly; a deep foreboding voice stopped her in her tracks.

_"It's time to stop playing around, woman."_

Trish whirled around, her eyes widened with a mix of shock and fear. A colossal winged figure hovered just above the rooftops, it's gargantuan wings blocking out the dim light cast by the moon. Mundus. The Prince of Darkness.

"Mundus..." Trish breathed.

The demon chuckled. _"I'm afraid not, my dear. A pale imitation at best. But never fear, your end shall come, regardless."_

Trish growled, her heart beating like a drum inside her chest. The deadly venom of fear coursed through her veins, clouding her senses, marring her judgment. She couldn't remember the last time she had been so afraid.

_"However, if you give me the sword now, I shall spare you. I'll even let you serve me as my personal slave, just as you did with the real Mundus. Doesn't that sound splendid?"_

Trish glared up at the imposter.

"Never again." Golden lightning surged around the huntress's body. She coiled her powerful legs, and propelled herself off the ground, lancing through the air towards the visage of her former master.

Antenor sighed. _"Very well."_

He raised his hands. The woman's screams were music to his ears.

------

Arkham watched from the roof, nodding in approval at the sight below him. Antenor in his human form stood over Trish's motionless body, holding Sparda in his hands. A smile pinched at the corners of Arkham's lips. Everything was going according to plan.

A sound behind him.

Arkham shot a glance over his shoulder to see Vergil struggling to his feet, a shotgun pointed at Arkham's back.

"D-don't move," stammered the half breed.

Arkham almost laughed. How pathetic. He drew Yamato from its sheath, and in an instant, the firearm clattered to the floor, sliced in two. Arkham wasn't done yet. Vergil gasped as Yamato plunged through his chest. He fell to his knees, still impaled by his own blade. Arkham stared down at the half demon, his scarred face distorted with contempt.

"How the mighty have fallen."

Arkham wrenched back on the sword's hilt to slide it out of Vergil's sternum. It didn't budge. Puzzled, Arkham tried again. A cold hand latched onto his wrist with bone crushing force. Glacier-like blue eyes pierced through Arkham's mismatched orbs. Arkham gasped. Vergil pried Yamato's sheath from Arkham's hand and slowly rose to his feet.

"No....It can't be...."

Vergil smirked. "Nice to see you again. Arkham."

A flash of blue light. Arkham suddenly found himself flat on his back, every inch of his body exploding with agony. He almost screamed, twitching on the ground in throes of pain. Vergil stood over him, letting Arkham's blood drip off of his blade.

"You're just the same as you were, Arkham. Weak and human."

A roar of rage escaped Arkham's lips.

"You fool! You have no idea the power I now possess!"

He disappeared from sight and reappeared behind the half breed, striking with the speed of a viper. Another flash of blue. Arkham found himself sprawled on the ground once again, a deep gash in his chest. He scrambled to his feet, gasping for air.

"Is that really your best effort? This is just embarrassing," drawled the Son of Sparda, staring at Arkham with an almost bored look on his face. He sheathed Yamato and ran a hand through his hair, slicking it back. Much better.

Arkham clenched his fists, panting heavily.

"Don't you dare talk down to me!"

The ground began to tremble as Arkham was surrounded by crimson light. The light flickered and warped, fading into a deep shade of blue. The light flickered between red and blue as the tremors grew more powerful. Suddenly, a hand fell upon Arkham's shoulder. Antenor stood beside him, shaking his head.

"That's enough. We got what we came for." He raised Sparda. "Further confrontation at this moment would not be wise. I still haven't returned to full strength."

Arkham glared at the shape shifter, his multi coloured eyes blazing with rage. He fixed his eyes back on Vergil, breathing deeply. Slowly, the light around him dissipated and the shaking earth fell still. Antenor smiled and nodded in approval.

Vergil stared at the dark suited man. He couldn't quite place it, but he knew that man from somewhere. The half demon shook off the thought. He could spend more time reminiscing when the man's head rolled at his feet. Vergil lunged forward, moving faster than the human eye could see. However, before Yamato could tear through flesh and bone, its progress was halted. A metallic ping reverbrated through the air. Vergil's eyes widened in surprise as he found himself staring face to face with himself. The half demon sprang backwards, sheathing his sword with a metallic hiss. The doppelganger flourished an exact copy of Yamato before mockingly slipping the blade back in its sheath, an exact mirror of Vergil.

A look of recognition flashed briefly across Vergil's face. "I've heard of you. Antenor, the demon of a thousand faces."

The shapeshifter's form warped once again, reverting to the dark suited gentleman. "You really don't remember your captivity do you?"

Vergil frowned. The last thing he could remember was being defeated by Dante while he had been under Mundus's control. Still, he wasn't about to give away valuable information to the shapeshifter. Vergil whipped out his blade and pointed it at the demon.

"Let's cut to the chase. What do you want?"

The shapeshifter tipped his bowler hat at the Son of Sparda.

"You will find out in due time. But unfortunately, we have to depart."

Antenor and Arkham stepped away from the edge of the roof, disappearing from sight as Vergil's blade cut through the air where they had been a split second ago. Vergil sheathed his blade, cursing himself for being a fraction of a second too slow. He looked down at the alley below, finding no trace of Arkham, Antenor or the mob of people which had occupied the space moments before. Vergil growled in annoyance. He needed answers.

Anyone who got in his way, human, demon or both would feel the wrath of Yamato.


	12. Showdown

****

**Wow, really late chapter, sorry folks. Things have been a little crazy lately and I've been finding it hard to find time or inspiration to write anything. So yeah, I've also made a few small changes to most of the other chapters too. Particularly Devil May Howl and the first chapter. Also, I've decided to change up the names a bit and instead of being known as Fourth, Fifth, Or whatever demons of the order, the Order members are now known as Disciples as reflected by the changes made. Just a minor change which I thought added to things a bit and made for a nice little bit of irony. Also, expect a demon index to shed some light on just what the hell some of these Order members can do.**

**MK**

**Showdown**

A colossal fist drove into the ground where Dante had been a split second before, causing the road to split and crack from the force of the blow. Dante strolled out of the dust cloud, laughing. The arm retracted as another gigantic appendage hurtled towards the devil hunter. Dante rolled out of the way with ease and straightened up, brushing off his coat. He gazed disdainfully at the thirty foot silver beast glaring down at him. The ground trembled as Cain roared in frustration.

"Quick tip, if you want to kill me, learn to aim."

Dante side stepped another blow, but this time, as the fist collided with the road a multitude of six foot long silver spikes erupted from the ground where Dante was standing. He was thrown off of his feet and landed heavily several feet away, blood streaming from various puncture wounds. The half demon quickly sprang up and barely avoided another descending fist. More of the spikes appeared, but this time, Dante back flipped away and avoided the deadly barbs.

As soon as Dante landed, he found himself ducking and weaving madly to avoid the silver spears hurtling from Cain's outstretched palm. Dante batted the last of the spears aside with Rebellion and began to return fire with Ebony and Ivory. The hailstorm of burning lead failed to even phase Cain, who simply let loose another volley of spears. Dante dodged each and every one of the projectiles and returned fire once again, stepping to the side as a car barrelled past him. Cain easily weathered the onslaught and raised a gigantic hand.

The demon roared in pain as his palm burt into flames. Lady rolled back behind the cover of a parked van and readied Kalina Ann for another shot. Cars zoomed past the battling trio, swerving wildly to avoid the massive silver beast. The terrified drivers slammed down the accelerator in an attempt to get as far away as possible from the terrifying spectacle unfolding before their eyes. One of the vehicles lost control and collided with Cain's leg, causing him to stumble slightly.

Thinking quickly, Dante ripped the door off of its hinges and pulled the driver out of the car just as it was crushed into scrap metal. The bewildered man squirmed in Dante's grasp, screaming hysterically.

"Get the hell out of here, now!" Dante shouted as he shoved the man away.

The man stared at Dante with wide eyes before bolting down the road with surprising speed. Dante breathed a sigh of relief just before a giant hand crushed him to the ground. Cain roared in triumph and scooped the dazed devil hunter up into the air.

Dante found himself being lifted up and then suddenly being pressed on from all sides by a tremendous pressure. Dimly, he heard Lady shouting beneath him. Cain squeezed the Son of Sparda with both his hands, hoping to crush the little nuisance into paste. A missile exploded on Cain's chest, causing him to stagger, but he maintained his grip on his prey.

The demon let loose a booming, guttural laugh.

"YOU'RE FINISHED!"

Cain suddenly found his fingers being forced apart as his hands were engulfed in red light. A crimson blur rocketed towards Cain's head and began ripping into his silver armour. Severed tendrils fell away from Cain as Dante's blade cut through his armour like a hot knife through butter. The half demon landed on Cain's snout and drove his sword deep into Cain's artificial forehead.

Cain roared and swatted at Dante, but the devil hunter was no where to be found, and he ended up smacking himself in the face with his own colossal palm. Cain sumbled forward, dazed and crashed head first into a building. The stone structure crumbled under the demon's weight, showering Dante and Lady with rubble and debris. Cain bellowed in fury and drove his fist into the remains of the building, before tearing a huge chunk off of the roof of the next building with his talons.

Dante winced as he landed on the road, his devil trigger fading away. He sincerely hoped that there was no one inside there.

Dante dashed forward and launched a series of slashes at the demon's legs. The demon howled and fell to its knees. Dante smirked. Time to go in for the kill.

"Freeze!"

Dante whipped around to find himself looking at a policeman staring at him with wide, frightened eyes and a gun held in quivering hands. Behind the man, four more cops got out of their respective cars and began opening fire on the disoriented silver beast.

Dante groaned. This complicated things.

"What do you guys think you're doing here? Run! Get the hell away from here! NOW!" Dante roared.

The cop pointing the gun at Dante tightened his grip on his fire arm and gulped.

"Step away from the....whatever it is! You are in danger!"

Dante moved towards him, grinding his teeth in frustration.

"You don't get it, this thing-"

"Dante! Look out!"

Something hit him in the side and he found himself sprawled out on the floor with Lady crouched on top of him just as Cain snapped out of his daze. The demon snarled and dove at his attackers. He soared over Dante and Lady with an uncanny grace. Five pairs of eyes went wide as the thirty foot tall behemoth was suddenly airbourne and hurtling towards them. Gravity took over and Cain hit the road with an almighty crash. The asphalt cracked and ripped and the surrounding city block quaked from the impact. One of the nearby buildings collapsed into rubble from the resulting tremors.

Lady rolled off of Dante, coughing heavily as the pair were engulfed in a cloud of dust. Dante covered his mouth and got to his feet, rubbing his eyes. When he opened them, he saw Cain lumbering towards him, the demon's silver chest splattered with blood. The pulverised body of one of the policemen still clung gruesomely to the leviathan's shoulder.

Dante's eyes flashed red.

"You monster! Those were innocent people!"

The wolf like silver face was split into a grin.

"YOU'RE NEXT, KID!"

Dante glanced over his shoulder at Lady preparing to launch another missile at the demon's face.

"Lady. I need to borrow Kalina Ann."

Lady looked at him, surprised.

"What? Why?"

"Just trust me."

Lady nodded and tossed Dante the missile launcher. The half demon caught the heavy weapon with ease and hefted it onto his shoulder.

"I'm going to need a distraction," said Dante as Cain drew nearer.

"A distraction? You've got my only weapon."

Dante threw Ebony, then Ivory over his shoulder. Lady caught the handguns and rolled her eys.

"Oh, great. Fat lot of good these are going to do me."

"They're the best I got, just think of something!"

Both of them rolled out of the way as Cain pounced, his talons tearing vicious gouges into the road. Lady leaped to the side as the demon turned its attention to Dante and began swiping madly at the red clad devil hunter.

Lady's eyes flitted back and forth as her mind raced.

"Okay, think Lady, think!" she muttered to herself.

Her eyes widened as she saw the van which she had previously used for cover, still more or less in tact.

"Bingo."

........

Dante danced around strike after strike, moving faster than the eye could see as everything around him was ripped to shreds. The devil hunter narrowly dove out of the way of Cain's fist and launched a counter strike, landing a stinging blow before the demon could retract his arm. Cain laughed and swatted Dante away like a fly. Dante went airbourne and collided with a wall before plumetting to the ground to land flat on his face.

The Son of Sparda staggered back onto two feet and laughed mockingly.

"I think that's the first time I've ever been bitch slapped by a demon. Well, I guess there's a first time for everything."

Dante sprinted forward and rapidly span Rebellion to deflect a barrage of spears. Cain growled in annoyance and raised his left arm. The limb began to shimmer and warp. From the elbow down, Cain's arm receded into a mass of writhing tentacles before reforming to morph into a wicked silver spike.

Paying no heed to his opponent's modifications, Dante lunged forward, slashing Rebellion at Cain's leg. The leviathan growled and stabbed at the nuisance with his newly formed appendage. Dante sidestepped the spike which drilled deep into the asphalt. Before Cain could withdraw, Dante leaped up and Rebellion flashed through the air.

Cain staggered backwards, leaving his severed forearm still embedded in the road. The demon snarled in annoyance as more tendrils sprouted to repair the injured limb. Seeing an opening, Dante shifted into devil trigger and took to the air. The half demon jack-knifed ascended rapidly, swerving around the leviathan's frenzied swipes. He jack knifed towards Cain's snout and sliced into the silver armour with Rebellion.

Cain howled, reeling. He lashed out at Dante, and managed to land a glancing blow on the air bourne half demon. Dante pinwheeled through the air before regaining his composure. He hefted Kalina Ann, trying to get a bead on Cain's head.

"Okay, I got one shot at this," muttered Dante through gritted fangs.

The missile launcher began to pulsate with an unearthly crimson glow as Dante channeled his energy into the weapon. A silver talon sliced past his head, breaking his concentration. The red glow faded away and Dante once again took evasive action.

"Lady! Now would be a good time for that distraction!" shouted Dante over Cain's rabid snarls.

The sound of screeching tires caught his attention and he looked down to see a van speeding down the road, towards the two battling demons. In its path was Cain's spike which remained skewered at a forty five degree angle to the road. Dante raised a scaly eyebrow.

The van's side door popped open, and a small, white figure dove out seconds before the van's tires hit the spike. The van was suddenly airbourne and it corkscrewed through the air while Lady peppered it with a maelstrom of bullets. The flying van collided with Cain's stomach before exploding into a ball of flame as one of Lady's bullets ignited its fuel tank. The demon let loose a bellow of surprise and lurched forward, clearly stunned.

Dante smirked. That girl never failed to surprise him. Kalina Ann began to glow with energy once again. Dante poured as much of his energy into the missile launcher as he could.

"Ready."

Cain swayed unsteadily on his feet, still in a daze.

"Aim."

Kalina Ann radiated an intense red light. Cain straightened up and unleashed a deafening roar before turning towards the hovering Dante.

"Fire."

The silver wolf head erupted in an inferno of crimson flames and fragments of charred silver flesh flew through the air. Cain's entire artificial body began to slowly crumble as Dante's devil trigger faded away and he began to plummet towards the ground. Above the devil hunter, a round, almost ball like shape tumbled towards the ground among the shredded silver. A wide maw lined with wicked fangs stretched wide open in a silent scream.

"Dante! Heads up!"

Dante twisted around and plucked an obsidian pistol out of the air. He guessed that he had about one second before he hit the ground. Plenty of time.

He aimed Ebony straight up, at the disembodied head of his enemy. Dante smirked.

"Jackpot."

A bullet exploded from the weapon and tore through the air and entered the open mouth of the Fifth Disciple of the Order. An ear splitting shriek filled Dante's ears before the head disappeared in a flash of silver. Dante grinned in triumph before twisting his body so that he landed safely in a cat like crouch on the ground. Silver shreds rained down all around him.

"Invincible? Yeah, right."

Dante suddenly found himself blinded as Cain's remains began to shine with a dazzling white light. Dante squeezed his eyes shut and he felt a strange heat flow through his body. The devil hunter opened his eyes and looked down to find that his arms were bathed in a warm silver glow. When the light faded, he wore a pair of gauntlets, the same ones Cain had worn in his human form. Dante smiled and snapped the wolves' jaws open and shut experimentally.

Looking like a child with a new toy, Dante raised his new weapons and with a serpentine hiss, a number of silver tendrils emerged from the mouth of each gauntlet. The tentacles extended and whipped out, latching onto a nearby lamp post. With an exhilarated laugh, Dante wrenched his arms to the side and the post was torn in two.

"Are you done yet?"

Dante pouted at Lady.

"You never let me have any fun," he muttered. The tendrils slowly retracted back into his gauntlets which disappeared in a flash of silver light.

Lady rolled her eyes and scooped Kalina Ann up from the ground. She gave the weapon a once over before hoisting it onto her shoulder. Lady's eyes flashed and she pointed Ebony at her fellow hunter. She squeezed the trigger.

Dante yelped and narrowly managed to avoid the bullet aimed at his head.

"You scratched my gun," growled Lady before tossing Ebony back to its owner.

................

Alex's eyes drooped as he stood statue-like at the counter, almost completely motionless. He had decided to pick up the night shift in what must have been the only clothing outlet that maintained working hours at this time of night. This near comatose state was how he coped with the boredom. The faint hiss of the doors sliding open snapped Alex out of his reverie. Awoken from his daze, the clerk couldn't supress the rather unsophisticaed yawn that stretched from his mouth. He quickly snapped his jaws shut and gulped at the sight of the new entrant.

A tall, pale man with slicked back silver hair loomed over him. He was dressed in nothing but tattered blue rags and what looked like the hilt of a sword protruded from behind his back. Alex's hand hovered over the emergency alarm.

The man cleared his throat.

"Do you sell coats?"

Alex blinked rapidly and just barely managed to stammer out an answer.

"Y-y-yes sir, right over there,"

Alex pointed with a trembling finger. Something about this man just terrified him. The man nodded curtly and stalked off towards the coats. The man quickly snatched a blue leather coat from the rack, examined it, then moved to the change rooms, taking the coat with him. He grabbed a pair of pants and a pair of shoes on his way.

A minute later, the man exited the change rooms and patted down his new outfit with a look of approval. Alex continued to stare at him, still wondering whether he should sound the alarm. The man strolled past Alex towards the exit, his new coat swishing behind him.

"Hey!"

The man paused and turned towards Alex. His stare was as cold as ice.

Alex gulped.

"You haven't payed yet."

There was a flash of blue light. Alex crumpled to the ground, unconscious. Vergil shook his head and walked out the door. It amazed him how weak and pathetic these humans were. The half demon breathed in the cool night air, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. It felt good to be free from Mundus' clutches at last.

A sharp sound caught his attention. He turned his head and spied a dark, hunched figure in a cloak illuminated by the dim light of a street lamp. The cloaked figure raised a withered finger and beckoned for Vergil to come closer. With that, the figure stole away from the light and became nothing more than a dark shadow, slithering swiftly down the sidewalk.

Vergil raised an eyebrow and followed the shadow, one hand keeping a firm grip on Yamato.


	13. Unholy Alliance

**Unholy Alliance**

Vergil kicked the doors open and strode into the church, his eyes quickly adjusting to the darkness. To his surprise, the Church was almost completely bare.

Instead of the rows of pews which were commonplace in most churches, there was only blank space. The stained glass windows opted not to display images of Christianity, but of various twisted creatures, monsters and horrors that inhabited the nightmares of mankind. Upon closer inspection, Vergil noticed that outlines of these same horrors had been carved into the marble floor. Vergil wasn't the religious type, but he knew enough to know that this was not what churches were meant to look like.

There was however, an altar on raised platform on the far end of the hall. The white stone seemed to glint with reflected light, despite the lack of illumination. A single unlit candle stood upon the altar. Vergil strolled down the aisle, unable to shake off an uneasy feeling. The shadow he had been following had disappeared as soon as it slipped under the doorway. This had all the makings of a trap.

Vergil suppressed a chuckle. Perhaps an ambush was just what the doctor ordered.

The candle flickered suddenly with a solitary yellow flame. Vergil span around, one hand encircling the hilt of Yamato. The church's entire interior was suddenly bathed in red light. Several figures dropped from the roof to form a circle around the Son of Sparda. They lurched towards him with jerky, unnatural movements. Marionettes. About six of them. A perfect warm up.

Vergil watched the Marionettes close in, his expression calm. The first one lunged forward, stabbing at Vergil with its blade. Vergil grabbed the demon's wrist with his free hand, his other still tightly gripping his sword. He pulled the demon's arm downwards so that its blade became embedded in the floor just as another Marionette struck at Vergil from behind.

The half demon side stepped and the Marionette's blade stabbed into the head of its trapped counterpart. Vergil drew Yamato, cut both demon's in half with one swipe and then returned his blade to its sheath all in one movement. Three more of the Marionettes leaped at Vergil and they all fell to the floor in pieces.

The remaining demon lurched forward, it seemed to think it could succeed where its comrades had so miserably failed. Vergil sighed and sheathed Yamato. He had hoped he would have been faced with at least some sort of challenge.

He raised his hand, not bothering to draw his sword. A sphere of blue light erupted from Vergil's palm and collided with the demon's chest. The demon was thrown backwards to the far end of the room where it exploded upon contact with the wall. Vergil allowed himself a smile. He had been worried his power had waned during the time in which he had no control of his actions. Evidently, it had done the exact opposite and increased.

"Bravo, Vergil. Bravo."

Vergil turned around to face an old man dressed in priest's vestments standing at the altar. The old man smiled sagely at Vergil and greeted him with a wave. The half demon disappeared in a flash of blue light and reappeared at the priest's side, Yamato pressed to the old man's withered throat.

"Who are you?"

The old man chuckled, paying no heed to the cold steel in close proximity to his jugular.

"You're as fast as ever."

Vergil stared at the man coldly.

"Answer me."

The man's cracked lips curled into a smile.

"You don't remember me do you.....Nelo Angelo?"

Vergil's eyes widened at the mention of his former moniker and he tightened his grip on Yamato.

"How do you know that name?" he hissed.

"I used to work with you. Does the name Aeneas ring any bells?"

Vergil raised an eyebrow. Aeneas had been one of Mundus' generals. He had been the one who had fashioned the puppet demons which Mundus used as soldiers. If Vergil remembered correctly, Aeneas had remained in the demon realm to control his puppets from a safe vantage point.

The old man's grin widened.

"You remember me, I see? After our Master unfortunately felt defeat at the hands of your dear brother, I managed to break into the human realm. Using this marvel of engineering," Aeneas gestured at his body. "I've been able to blend in quite nicely with these humans, waiting for Master's inevitable return."

Vergil didn't lower his blade.

"He's not my master anymore. And you are not my ally. Which means that your life is worthless to me. Any last words?"

Aeneas' face fell into a grimace.

"Come now, Vergil. Is this the thanks I get for rescuing you from the Order?"

Vergil looked at Aeneas curiously. He had heard the shapeshifter say something about his captivity. Had he been held captive by the Order of Sin?

"Explain to me exactly what happened after Mundus was defeated."

Aeneas sighed and stepped away from Vergil's blade. Vergil returned Yamato to its sheath, but remained wary of the elderly demon.

"After I felt Master fall, I decided to head to the human world to pave the way for our master-"

"Your master," Vergil corrected.

Aeneas waved his hand dismissively.

"Yes, yes. Whatever you say. As I was saying, I found a portal to the human world and since then, I've managed to live among the humans, honing my strength. I've also managed to conduct quite a few experiments with human-"

Aeneas cleared his throat.

"-assistance, and improved upon the design of my puppets exponentially. I waited contentedly for the return of our master, but lo and behold, I heard news of the machinations of the Order of Sin."

Vergil nodded. He had heard stories about the Order.

"Since the fall of our Lord, the traitors had regained some of their power and managed to physically enter the human realm. I also learnt that they had taken _you_ captive. I knew you were vital to their plans so I decided to take it upon myself to free you. After a long period of planning and hard work- which you so sorely underappreciate, I managed to find a way into Eden and dragged your ungrateful body into the human world."

Vergil frowned.

"What do they need me for?"

"I'm not entirely sure. I assume it has something to do with freeing their master and that you are necessary in breaking the seal your father helped forge. Going with that theory, I would also assume they want your brother as well."

The thought of his brother hadn't yet crossed Vergil's mind. The last memory of his brother was Vergil's defeat at his hands during his tenure as Mundus' right hand. Another thought occurred to him. From what he had heard, Dante had been the one to defeat Mundus. A chill crept down Vergil's spine. Did that mean his brother had surpassed him?

Vergil looked up to see Aeneas staring at him with sunken eyes.

"A war is brewing, Son of Sparda. If we want to survive, we must work together once again. We need to get to your brother before the Order does."

Aeneas extended his hand. Vergil eyed the gnarled appendage for a moment, and then with a sigh, grasped it with his own. Vergil quickly withdrew and resisted the urge to wipe his hand on his coat. Aeneas beamed at the half demon, then snapped his fingers.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. We're not the only ones who want to stop the Order. We've got an inside man."

Aneas gestured down the aisle. There was a puff of violet smoke accompanied by the sound of jingling bells. A familiar high pitched giggle filled the air and Jester leaped out of the smoke with a flourish of his hand.

"Ta-da!"

Vergil's eyes flashed and Yamato left its sheath in an instant.

"You!"

The demented clown cocked its head to the side and stuck its tongue out.

"That's hardly the way to greet an old friend, Vergie."

Vergil glared at Jester.

"He works for them."

Aeneas laughed.

"Half of him does, but we share a common interest. You can trust him."

Vergil fixed Aeneas with a cold stare.

"I don't trust _you_ either."

Jester cackled and his feet hammered agains the ground in some kind of bizzare jig.

"We're going to have so much _fun_!"

........

Dante yelped as a truck hurtled past the window, narrowly avoiding the rear view mirror. He glanced at Lady. The huntress' knuckles were white against the steering wheel and her foot slammed down on the accelerator with a frightening zeal.

Dante cleared his throat.

"Hey babe, maybe I should drive?"

Lady turned her head, her expression murderous. Dante looked at her uneasily.

"Maybe you should keep your eyes on the ro- Jesus Christ, woman, watch out!"

The stolen car swerved to the left, just barely avoiding a head on collision. Lady's eyes snapped back to the road.

"Don't call me babe," she hissed.

Dante rolled his eyes. He opened his mouth to make a witty retort, but thought against it. He figured that antagonizing Lady now would be the death of both of them. They drove in silence for a moment, save for an occasional curse as Lady barely avoided another vehicle.

Surprisingly, it was Lady who broke the silence.

"So let me get the story straight. You found your estranged brother half dead in an alley and he doesn't even remember his own name."

"Pretty much."

"And now we've got the freakin' Order of Sin gunning for us. The streets are being over run by walking corpses. And to top it off, my asshole of a father is one of them. Great. Just great."

Lady stamped down harder on the accelerator and they burst through a red light.

"You're going to need to fill me in a little here. How do you know about these Order guys?"

Lady sighed.

"Well, you know the gist of it I suppose?"

Dante nodded.

"Uh huh."

"Your father and Mundus trapped them in Eden for what was meant to be all of eternity. However, not even Mundus or Sparda's power can keep demons of that level of strength sealed forever. There are six of them. Well, five now. Cain, Antenor, Ptolemy, Brutus, Cassius and Judas. Notice anything about their names?"

Dante shook his head. It was Lady's turn to roll her eyes.

"Famous figures in human history, or legend. For the past few millennia, the demons have been able to sporadically enter the human world as spirits and possess human infants. Even in human form, they've been able to change the entire world. Brutus and Cassius were involved in the death of Julius Caesar. It was rumoured that Antenor was one of those responsible for the destruction of Troy. Once, even Judas was able to enter the human realm. He went by the name of Judas Iscariot."

Even Dante knew that name.

"The guy from the Bible?"

"The very same."

Lady remained quiet for a moment, her brow furrowed. Dante studied her face, curious. He knew that look. That woman had the worst poker face on Earth. She wasn't telling him something. Lady threw a quick glance over her shoulder throat, then spoke up again.

"One thing's for sure. We can't let them release Judas. Not even you, or your brother has a hope of defeating him."

Dante snorted. He wasn't so sure of that. Lady fell silent again and Dante turned back to the window. He spotted a sign and motioned for Lady to slow down.

"We're almost there."

Lady ceased her attempts to stomp the pedal through the floor and the vehicle slowed down to a reasonable speed. Dante's eyes widened as he saw a figure sprawled out on the side of the road.

"Lady! Stop!"

The car screeched to a halt. The door flew open and the devil hunter leaped out in a whirlwind of red.

Trish lay motionless on the sidewalk, her clothes in tatters and her skin was covered in burns and cuts. Her eyes were closed. Dante leaned over her, shaking the blonde's shoulders frantically.

"Trish! Trish! Come on wake up, babe."

Dante reached into his coat and pulled out a green orb. He crushed the orb in his hand and placed his palm on Trish's stomach. She was bathed in emerald light and her eyes fluttered open. Dante breathed a sigh of relief.

"D-Dante?" Trish's voice was hoarse and cracked.

"Come on, we need to get you some help," whispered the half demon.

Trish shook her head and clutched at Dante's coat with trembling fingers.

"No...too...late..Dante...you...need-"

Her body shook in Dante's arms as she was overcome by a fit of violent coughs.

"Trish! Come on, stay with me. What the hell happened?"

Trish looked up at Dante, her eyes dull and unfocused.

"They.....came.....and......Vergil....he-"

She began to cough again, her slim frame shook like a leaf.

"Vergil? What about Vergil? Did he do this?"

Trish opened her mouth to say something but all that came out was a hoarse croak. Her eyes suddenly went wide and her back arched. She writhed in Dante's grasp, gasping for breath. Dante held her tightly and tried to still her tremors. Finally, she fell limp in Dante's arms. Her eyelids began to droop.

"Trish?"

Dante squeezed her shoulders.

"Trish!"

She remained motionless. Dante shook her desperately.

"TRISH!"

Her skin began to glow with a dim golden light. Dante held his partner to his chest.

"No....you can't do this to me. Not again! No!"

Trish's body faded away and Dante found himself grasping at thin air.

"No..."

Dante remained on his knees, motionless.

Lady approached him hesitantly from behind, unsure of what to do. She had never been too good with emotional moments like this. The huntress had maintained a relatively amiable working relationship with Trish, but never enough to call her a friend. Trish had been a full blooded demon after all. Still, Lady could empathise with what Dante must have been going through.

She reached out tentatively with one hand and touched Dante's shoulder. The half demon's head whipped around, his teeth bared in a feral snarl. Lady shrank back at the sight of Dante's blood red eyes. There was a burst of crimson light and Lady found herself sprawled out on the pavement, stunned.

She looked up to see a demon looming over her, bat like wings outstretched and fangs bared. Lady grasped at her back for Kalina Ann but cursed herself when she realized she had left it in the car. The demon unleashed a cacophonous roar and it was engulfed in red flames.

Lady scrambled to her feet and against her better judgement, she began to slowly approach the demon.

"Dante?"

The red flames receded slightly and the demon's head cocked to the side, regarding her with a curious look.

"Its me, Lady."

The air around her reverbrated at the sound of the demon's growl.

"You need to calm down."

Lady drew nearer to the demon and grasped its spiked shoulder. The flames died down entirely. The demon glared at her. Lady stared into its blood red eyes, searching for a fragment of Dante.

The demon turned its head away, avoiding her gaze. It slowly sank to its knees. Lady's hand remained on its shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Slowly, the demon faded away and Dante looked up at Lady, breathing heavily.

Dante avoided her eyes and looked back down at the floor. Lady sighed. For a reason unknown to her, she crouched down onto her knees beside the immobile half demon and wrapped her arms around him. She heard him inhale in surprise and tense slightly before relaxing and letting his arms gently encircle her waste.

She didn't know how long they stayed there, locked in each others arms, but finally Dante unclasped his hands and let them fall to the side. Lady cleared her throat awkwardly and followed suit. She stretched to her feet and brushed herself off before backpedaling as far away from Dante as she could. For some reason, her heart was beating like a drum.

Dante slowly got to his feet, and a ghost of a smile flitted across his face.

"Just couldn't keep your hands off me, could you?"

Lady's jaw dropped and it took all of her self control not to lunge at Dante and tear him limb from limb.

"You're a jerk," she spat.

Dante laughed as he opened the car door.

"I'm driving this time."

Before he stepped in, he turned and looked at Lady, still avoiding her mismatched eyes.

"Thanks," he murmured.

The door slammed shut.

Lady shook her head in disbelief and stepped into the passenger seat. The engine whirred to life and Dante pressed his foot down on the accelerator. Lady stared at the devil hunter's face. He kept his eyes fixed doggedly on the road.

"What now?"

For a split second, Dante's eyes were as red as they had been in demon form.

"We have to find my brother."


	14. Death Warmed Up

**Author's Note:**

**Another update? Gasp! Expect the follow up chapter in the next fortnight or so. Enjoy the chapter and hit me up with a review!**

**Death Warmed Up**

"And _that,_ is how normal people drive,"

"Give me a break. You drive slower than an old woman. If I were driving, we'd have been here an hour ago," snorted Lady.

"The drive only took twenty minutes. Unless the car magically transformed into a DeLorean, I highly doubt that you would have gotten us here that quickly."

Lady gave Dante a questioning look. He shook his head and pressed the button to call the elevator. The _Back to The Future_ reference was obviously lost on her.

A beep signalled the arrival of the elevator and they stepped in. Dante's contact, Enzo Ferino lived on the top floor of the apartment building. Dante tapped his toes to the beat of the elevator music, humming as loud as he possibly could in Lady's ear. Lady shoved Dante away and gave him her signature angry blue and red glare. Dante grinned and stuck out his tongue.

"What? It's a catchy tune."

Lady shook her head in amazement. Around twenty minutes ago, the half demon had appeared to be on the verge of emotional collapse. Now he was even more annoying than he usually was. She didn't think she would ever understand how Dante's mind worked.

The floor jerked under the pair's feet and the doors slid open with a hiss as they reached the top floor. Conveniently, Enzo's apartment was across the hall from the elevator. Dante rapped his knuckles on the door. There was the sound of shuffling feet and shortly, the door flew open, revealing Enzo's beaming face.

"Dante! What a pleasure! Please, come in!"

Enzo was a rotund man of obvious Italian descent. He wore his bushy mustache with pride, perhaps compensating for his receding hairline. He had been Dante's contact with the mercenary world since Dante had first started his business and regularly provided the devil hunter with work and information.

"You seem unusually happy to see me, Enzo."

"It's been a long time since you've come to visit."

Dante smiled ruefully, that was true. The only contact they had had with each other in the last few months was the relay of business through the phone. Dante entered the apartment and to his surprise, found that it was impeccably tidy. There wasn't a single article of garbage or any sign of clutter. That was strange. Enzo had never been too worried about hygiene.

"Doing a little spring cleaning?"

Enzo grinned.

"I was expecting some female company tonight."

He spotted Lady following Dante in through the door way and winked at the huntress.

"Speaking of female company, who's this picture of loveliness?"

Dante chuckled as Lady scowled at the Italian.

"This my good friend, is Lady. One of my partners."

Lady had only ever heard of Enzo through Dante, and had not yet met the man in person.

"Ahh! Of course! A pleasure to meet you! A pleasure!"

Lady nodded in response, unsure what to make of the man.

Dante marched quickly to the kitchen and came back with an armful of weaponry. Lady saw Enzo's eyes widen briefly in surprise.

"You still keep your guns in the kitchen cupboard, I see? I've told you before, you need to put them in a safe," Dante said and then dumped the weapons unceromoniously on the nearest couch.

Enzo shrugged, seemingly unsure of what to say.

Dante began tossing a variety of weapons and ammo at Lady. A pair of Desert Eagles, a Heckler and Koch MP7 submachine gun and even an M16 assault rifle. Lady's arms were soon sagging under the accumulated weight of the firearms.

"You expect me to carry all these around like this?"

Dante lobbed a pair of weapon belts at the huntress. Lady nodded approvingly and slipped the belts around her torso before slotting in the weapons. She moved over to the still ample pile of weaponry to pick out a few more. She pulled a sleek black shotgun out from the oile and looked it up and down admiringly.

"Custom made, short barrelled, pump action and with a shortened tubular magazine. Semi automatic. This one's a keeper," Lady murmured to herself as she slipped the gun into her belt.

Enzo shook his head and ambled over to the kitchen. He returned with a beer in his hand.

"So," he said.

"How's Trish?"

Dante's face contorted briefly, and then he caught himself and his expression became blank. Lady turned away from the collection of weapons and watched him cautiously, her eyes flitting back and forth between him and Enzo.

"She's dead."

Enzo gasped.

"_Dead? _How? What happened?"

"That's what I need to find out. I need you to call all of your contacts and tell them to keep on the look out for a man that looks like me, but dressed in blue."

Enzo nodded.

"You think Vergil had something to do with this?"

"That's right."

"So you don't know where Vergil is?"

"I wouldn't be asking you if I knew," Dante snapped.

Enzo pressed on, regardless of Dante's obvious ill temper.

"Do you have any idea of where he might be?"

"He's somewhere in the city, I'm sure of that. Not even he could have gotten that far so quickly."

Enzo sighed, a disappointed expression on his well padded face.

"This is going to take some work. Dante, you want a drink?"

The half demon shook his head. Enzo turned to the only female in the room.

"How about you, Mary?"

Lady stiffened and whipped around to face the heavy set Italian.

"What did you say?"

Enzo stepped back, his expression suddenly turning cold.

"I asked if you wanted a drink, Lady."

Lady growled. She drew one of the Desert Eagles and slid in a clip. No one knew her real name except for a select few. Enzo wasn't one of them. The Italian's eyes flitted towards the firearm and for a split second, his pupils flashed green. Lady's eyes widened.

"You're-"

Enzo lunged forward with astonishing speed before she could finish her sentence. The fat man knocked the gun out of the surprised huntress' hands and then struck her in the stomach with a meaty fist. Lady felt her breath leave her and she was suddenly airbourne. She landed with a hard thud on the floor several feet away, gasping for breath.

Dante sprang towards what he had thought was his friend, slashing forward with Rebellion. A thin rapier appeared in Enzo's flabby hand and Rebellion was deflected away. Enzo hopped backwards, his entire body rippling like liquid. Dante blinked and in Enzo's place was a man in a dark suit and a bowler hat.

Dante growled and gripped Rebellion with both hands.

"Who the hell are you?"

The man chuckled.

"I'm whoever you want me to be."

His form shifted again and suddenly, Trish was standing before Dante, alive and well. Dante's eyes widened

"Happy to see me?" she said.

Dante tightened his grip on Rebellion. This demon may have looked like Trish and sounded like Trish, but it wasn't his partner. Trish was dead. And soon, this imposter would be too. The fake Trish warped and became the dark suited man once again.

The man winked at Dante.

"You may call me Antenor."

"So you're one of them," Dante muttered darkly.

Antenor clapped mockingly.

"Oh, bravo. Did you work that out all by yourself?"

The room was suddenly filled by rattle of gunfire as Lady unleashed hell with her new submachine gun. Antenor twirled his rapier, deflecting the bullets with ease. Dante took the opportunity to thrust Rebellion at the demon's chest. His blade plunged not into soft flesh, but into the folds of a dark, billowing cloak. Dante rolled out of the way before the Mephisto could engulf him in its cloak. He let loose a volley of gunfire into the folds of the creature's cloak, but the dark mass was already morphing and shifted into a strange cat like creature that seemed to be comprised of shadows.

Dante leaped backwards as black spikes erupted from the ground beneath him.

"A Shadow, huh? You sure have a lot of tricks up your sleeve," panted the devil hunter.

Lady continued to pepper the demonic cat with bullets, and it turned towards her, snarling. Lady ripped a grenade from her belt and tore off the pin with her teeth. The Shadow surged towards her and pounced, its jaws stretched impossible wide. Lady hurled the grenade into its mouth and dove out of the way.

"Fire in the hole!"

There was a colossal bang, and the Shadow suddenly expanded into a scarlet ball as the grenade exploded inside it. The ball deflated and sank into a puddle of black ooze on the floor. Dante sauntered over to the puddle and pointed his pistols at it.

"That wasn't so tough."

"Get away from there! This isn't over yet!" shouted Lady.

Before the devil hunter could step away, the black puddle suddenly disappeared and Dante found himself entangled in the sinuous form of a large snake. Dante fell to the floor as his legs were pinned together and he found himself staring into six sets of eyes as the three headed cobra bore down on him.

One of the heads exploded in a shower of emerald blood, but before Lady could fire off another round, the two remaining heads opened their mouths and showered her with a sticky green substance. The huntress was pinned to the wall, unable to move.

Dante growled, struggling to break free. He grunted in pain as two pairs of fangs sank into either side of his neck. The other head looked down at Dante with what appeared to be an expression of amusement as its tongue darted back and forth. He suppressed a gasp as he felt the venom coursing through his veins like wild fire.

"You're far more resilient than your friends," hissed the snake.

"That fat oaf begged for mercy before I even managed to cut all of his limbs off. I had that blonde woman screaming like a stuck pig without any effort at all."

Crimson light erupted from Dante's body and the snake was flung away to collide with the wall on the far side of the room. The air around Dante shimmered and warped as demonic energy oozed out of every pore on his body. The power surged through his veins, eradicating the venom and filling his body with new strength. His entire form quaked with the same savage rage he had felt when Trish had died. Dante began to stalk towards the writhing snake, fangs bared.

_"By the time I'm done with you, you'll be begging for death,"_ snarled Dante.

The snake morphed into a reptilian Blade and pounced at Dante, but it was sent flying back to smash into the wall again. The Blade crumpled to the floor and began to shift once again. Instead of a demon sprawled out on the floor before Dante, Lady looked up at him, her mismatched eyes pleading with him.

"Dante..." she whispered. "Please..."

Dante hesitated and lowered his sword slightly.

The imposter's face split into a grin. Lady disappeared and a sharp pain pierced through Dante's abdomen.

Dante's devil trigger faded away and he looked down. To his surprise, the hilt of a katana protruded from his stomach. Dante was suddenly blinded by blue light and he was thrown to the ground. His brother stood over him, wiping the blood off of his blade. Vergil shimmered and once again became the dark suited man.

Still on his back, Dante raised Ebony and Ivory and squeezed the triggers. Antenor slid backwards, ducking and weaving to avoid the gunfire. Dante was on his feet in an instant and eyed his opponent warily. The half demon took deep breaths as his rage slowly subsided. Antenor cocked his head to the side, an amused smile on his face.

"That was interesting. Very interesting."

Dante kept his guns aimed directly at Antenor's head.

"You stopped when I became that human wench over there."

Antenor gestured towards Lady, still struggling against the green slime. The shapeshifter's smile widened.

"A demon with feelings for a human. How peculiar. You certainly are an oddity."

"I wouldn't exactly go as far as to call you normal either," Dante replied dryly.

Antenor chortled and nodded his head in agreement.

"Touche."

Dante tensed his legs to lunge forward and strike, but froze as he felt a sudden chill in the air. Antenor clapped his hands together.

"Ah, finally. Reinforcements."

The temperature in the room abruptly dropped and Dante couldn't help but shiver. Despite being in an enclosed building, a biting wind began to whip through the room. The devil hunter felt moisture on his head and looked up to find that it was snowing.

"What the hell?"

Antenor laughed. "Ptolemy enjoys making a big entrance."

The wind began to rip around the room with an increased fervour and Dante was engulfed in a maelstrom of snowflakes. The howl of rushing wind became a blood curdling scream of fury. Dante winced as the stinging cold gusts tore at his skin. This was just ridiculous. Now they were just deliberately trying to annoy the hell out of him.

The winds suddenly disappeared and the flakes of snow drifted down to litter the floor. Dante blinked the snow out of his eyes and brushed down his coat.

"Well, that was fun. But it's going to take a little more than-" Dante trailed off mid sentence as he saw the figure standing stock still at Antenor's side.

The figure was humanoid and stood with a rigid, straight backed posture. It was completely motionless with its arms locked into place at its sides. Dante couldn't make out any more of its bodily features as it was covered in a strange translucent white armour. Upon closer inspection, Dante realized the armour was merely a thick casing of ice. The ice covered the figure from head to toe, entirely concealing even its face.

"Is this some kind of joke? I mean, really? Come on! The best you can offer is a human popsicle?"

Dante shook his head in disbelief and laughed.

"One quick question before I kick your frozen ass. What flavour are you?"

The ice encrusted demon remained still despite the devil hunter's taunts. Beside it, Antenor chuckled as he straightened his suit.

Dante snorted. "Strong, silent type, huh?"

He drew Rebellion, but before the half demon could lunge forward, a faint hissing sound caught his attention. He dropped to his knees, just as a whirling white disc zipped over his head from behind, narrowly missing the half demon's scalp. The disc screeched to a halt in mid air before turning back to zoom towards its target. Rebellion sliced through the air and the disc fell to the floor in shattered fragments of ice.

Antenor spoke up.

"Perhaps it is not the best idea to taunt Ptolemy."

Dante flourished Rebellion and pointed its tip at the newcomer.

"Am I offending you? Please, if I am, just speak up."

Antenor glanced at Ptolemy, then nodded. Immediately, the air around the frozen demon began to crystalize and a thousand needles of ice hurtled towards Dante. The devil hunter's eyes widened and he backpedaled furiously, Rebellion spinning in his hands. The blade managed to deflect a substantial amount of the needles, but a few managed to slip past his guard.

Dante flinched at the biting pain of the needles stabbing into his skin. Not bothering to pull them off, Dante charged forwards, but his progress was stopped as an icy figure materialised directly in his path. The translucent golem stood at eight feet tall and resembled a massive ape wielding a broadsword. Dante cursed as he was forced backwards again. Ice met steel and Rebellion was almost jarred out of Dante's hands.

He staggered backwards into the arms of another ice golem. His breath left him in a gasp as the creature's cold arms crushed him tightly to its chest. The other golem lurched forward and thrusted at the trapped devil hunter with his sword. Dante just barely managed to wriggle out from under the golem's grasp just as the first golem's sword pierced through its counterparts chest with a deafening crack.

The second golem crumbled to pieces just as Dante drove his sword through the back of the first golem. The creature dissintegrated shortly after Dante ripped his sword free. Dante crowed in triump and turned around to find a Frost materialize in front of him, its blades flashing. Dante just barely managed to avoid the ice demon's thrust and pivoted swiftly on one foot to launch a lightning quick strike at the Frost's neck. Before Rebellion could remove the demon's head from its body, its form warped and Dante found himself standing face to face with himself.

"I've got to say, you're the best looking demon I've faced today," said the devil hunter with a smirk.

Rebellion became locked with the it's exact replica, sparks cascading off of the twin blades. The two battled briefly for power, before Dante pushed the shapeshifter backwards with a burst of strength and broke the blade lock. Dante suddenly felt his back explode with searing pain. He doubled over and reached behind his shoulder to rip out a handful of ice needles, stained with his blood. Another sharp pain tore through his abdomen as Antenor took his chance and struck with a myriad of intricate slashes.

Dante staggered backwards, the pattern of cuts on his torso already closing over. He took to the air and somersaulted over Antenor's head. He landed on his feet behind the shapeshifter, putting Antenor between Dante and Ptolemy.

Antenor pivoted to face Dante, and struck at the devil hunter. Dante parried each of the imposters strikes and pushed him back with a well placed kick to the gut. Antenor sidestepped Dante's attempt to skewer him and rolled to the side as Dante was engulfed in a whirlwind of swirling ice.

The devil hunter's entire body suddenly became numb. He found himself unable to move a muscle. He saw Antenor in his normal form approach him, but it was as if he was looking at the demon through thick glass.

Fragments of ice exploded off of Dante's body as he activated his devil trigger. Antenor's eyes widened briefly with surprise as Dante's blade sliced into his chest and he was thrown to the floor. Dante moved on and charged at Ptolemy. The air surrounding Ptolemy's body flickered and ice needles once again flew towards the half demon.

Dante ignored the projectiles which splintered harmlessly on his reinforced skin. Another ice golem materialized in his path. Dante grinned as he easily knocked the golem's sword aside and began to jackhammer Rebellion back and forth into its chest.

_"It's showtime!"_

Chips of ice flew past Dante's face as the creature fell to pieces. Dante leaped over the golem's remains and rushed towards Ptolemy at breakneck speed.

Ptolemy remained motionless as Dante closed in. The devil hunter cleared the gap between the two with a fluid leap and thrust his blade at the ice demon's frozen face. Dante felt a flash of searing heat run up his arm and he was hurled backwards. He twisted around to land on his feet and returned to human form.

Ptolemy's icy mask had splintered where Rebellion struck, and a jagged hole had been ripped into the ice, revealing a piercingly blue eye. Dante stared into the azure pupil, panting hard. A beam of intensely bright blue light blasted out of the eye and on instinct, Dante rolled out of the way. The beam ripped into the floor, leaving a black scorch mark.

Another beam lanced towards the half demon, and he rolled away again. This time he rolled right into Antenor's fist. Dante staggered, surprised by the force of the blow. He raised Rebellion to counter attack, but a shaft of azure light slammed into his chest and he was flung to the ground. Dante gasped at the agonizing pain burning through his chest. He struggled to his feet, clutching at his charred skin.

The burn was already healing swiftly, and Dante sneered at the ice demon.

"It's going to take a lot more than a cheap light show to put me down."

His chest exploded with pain. Dante looked down and to his surprise, found a solid pillar of ice protruding from his chest. There was a sickening squelch as he felt a sword pierce through his back. He fell to his knees, suddenly drained of all energy.

A smooth voice whispered into his ear.

"I'm sorry to say, your combat skills have been sorely overrated."

Dante coughed, blood spilling from his lips.

"Kiss my ass," he rasped.

Antenor's answering laugh had a menacing edge to it.

"Defiant to the end I see."

His rapier morphed into an oversized steel mallet which drew a satisfying crunching sound from Dante's skull. The half demon fell limply to the floor, his eyes closed. Antenor smiled and the mallet disappeared from his hands. All of a sudden, the shapeshifted lurched backwards, writhing as a hail of bullets tore into his body.

Lady strode forward, a smoking M16 clutched in her hands. She flicked a glob of green slime from her face and unloaded another storm of burning lead at the Bane of Troy. A round shield appeared in Antenor's hand and protected the demon from Lady's onslaught.

"Foolish girl," he hissed.

"Ptolemy! Finish her!"

Lady threw down the rifle and hefted Kalina Ann as a freezing wind swept through the room again. A missile tore through the air and collided with the ice demon in an explosion of flame. The smoke cleared and Ptolemy had been replaced by a hole in the ground leading to the floor below.

Lady bent down to pick up the rifle, keeping her eyes fixed on Antenor.

"Now that your little friend is gone, it's just you and me," Lady growled.

"My dear, you have no idea what you've gotten yourself into."

The shapeshifter smirked and once again warped into another form. A blue clothed man with silver hair dashed at Lady, slicing apart her bullets in mid flight. The Vergil replica closed the gap between the huntress in seconds, and a gleaming blade suddenly appeared in its hands.

Lady was briefly blinded by a flash of blue light. Her vision returned to her, and to her surprise, she found that all of her body parts remained in tact.

Two Vergils stood in front of her, their blades locked together. A spark of green light flitted through one of the otherwise identical sets of eyes.

"You've resorted to using my form again," one of them said. His voice had a cold edge to it.

The other Vergil staggered, blood spurting from a cut in his chest. The imposter shimmered again, and reverted to Antenor's original form. Antenor lunged at the real Vergil, rapier in hand. Yamayo sliced through the air and the shapeshifted collapsed at Vergil's feet.

The half demon gazed at him coldly.

"You dare to imitate me, yet display such weakness. To think a demon like you once fought against my father."

The dark suited gentleman spat at Vergil, his normally calm face contorted with fury.

"Your father was ten times the demon you were, and he was mere scum compared to the Order of Sin!"

"Then tell me, how does it feel to have been bested by the offspring of scum?"

Antenor glared up at Vergil, eyes blazing. There was another flash of blue light and the shapeshifter slid across the floor as Vergil dismissed him with a wave. He turned away and began walking towards his unconscious brother.

"Stop right there!"

Vergil turned around to see Lady pointing at him with her assault rifle. Vergil regarded her with a look of contempt.

"I remember you. The troublesome girl from the Temen Ni Gru. You're still alive, I see."

Lady snarled.

"I thought you were supposed to have amnesia."

Vergil shrugged.

"I'm sorry to disappoint."

Vergil disappeared from sight, and reappeared at Lady's side. The M16 clattered to the floor in two pieces. The huntress ducked down and barely avoided being decapitated by Vergil's blade. She suddenly found herself flat on her back, her face stinging from the impact of Vergil's knee.

The half demon strolled past her with Dante's body slung over one shoulder. She cursed and opened fire on him with the Desert Eagles, but he deflected the bullets without even glancing in Lady's direction. He halted in front of a wall, and gave Yamato a quick flourish. A neat, triangular section of the wall slipped away to plummet to the street below. A light breeze blew in through the hole, ruffling Vergil's silver hair.

Vergil was illuminated in a blue glow as he activated his devil trigger. Vergil's devil form had changed over the last decade, just as his twin's had. His demonic state resembled Dante's in a number of ways but it was sleeker and more streamlined. Instead of the two bat wings Dante posessed, a pair of slender, blade-like fins protruded from Vergil's back. Vergil stepped back and cast a glance over his shoulder at Antenor, who was finally struggling to his feet. Without further delay, Vergil dove forward and the two Sons of Sparda disappeared into the night.

Antenor's eyes widened.

"No!"

The shapeshifter sprinted forwards and transformed into a winged, wolf-like creature in mid step. The wolf leaped out of the opening in the wall, but yelped as it found itself being dragged downwards towards the teeming street below.

"Oh god, what the hell am I doing?" Lady mumbled to herself as she clung onto the beast's tail for dear life.

The wolf released a strangled howl and twisted in the air, trying to shake off its unwanted passenger. Lady felt her fingers slipping through the demon's coarse fur. The wolf pitched backwards, and Lady lost her grip on its tail and gravity took hold.

"Oh shit."

Her heart began to pound against her ribcage as she plunged towards the ground. Lady slipped Kalina Ann off of her back and pointed it up. She prayed to whatever deity would listen for her idea to work. The bayonet blade hurtled off of the weapon, attached by a thin cord. After what seemed like an eternity, her rapid descent came to a sudden, jarring halt and Kalina Ann was nearly ripped out of Lady's hands as the cord was pulled tight. Lady clung to her weapon while she swung madly back and forth like a pendulum

Lady looked down to find that she still had a good fifteen feet or so between her and the ground. Compared to where she had started from, that was nothing. Lady's almost laughed. She couldn't believe that had worked. The huntress looked up and to her shock, saw the side of a building rushing towards her. She scrunched her eyes shut and everything went black.


	15. Judgement Day

**Judgement Day**

Cassius closed his eyes and let his hand rest upon the warm wood. He felt the tree pulse gently under his fingers and a shiver of anticipation ran up his spine. The time of his master's return was drawing near. A high pitched giggle shook the First Disciple out of his trance. The demon fixed a baleful glare upon the clown dangling from one of the tree's branches, paying no heed to its sacred nature.

Cassius sighed and shook his head. Scolding the insolent fool seemed to have no effect, so it seemed easier to just let him expend his energy. He tore his gaze away from the clown and turned to the dark suited shapeshifter snivelling at his feet.

"You had a Son of Sparda right in front of you, and you let them get away. Just like Cain, you have failed. Give me one reason why I should let ou live," said Cassius, his voice barely audible.

Antenor stared up at him, his emerald eyes filled with fear.

"It was not my fault! Those abominations, they-"

Cassius' eyes flashed.

"I don't want to here any excuses, brother."

Behind the pair, Jester cackled.

"Ooooh, you're in trouble now!"

Cassius ignored him and continued to glare down at Antenor, contempt etched into his statuesque features.

"The plan was flawless. That Italian had been a well known confidante of the Sparda boy's, according to Arkham and finding him must have been a simple matter. The ambush was perfectly set, capturing the half breed should have been easy. You even had Ptolemy to assist you."

"There were complications," whimpered the shapeshifter.

"Complications?"

"There was a girl, who proved to be surprisingly troublesome. And the other Sparda child appeared too and caught me by surprise. If I had been at full power, I would have been able to defeat them both."

The First Disciple stared at his subordinate for a moment, before turning away.

"Very well. I shall let you live, for now. You did manage to bring me Sparda's blade. But Antenor, do not fail me again."

Antenor breathed a sigh of relief. A dark figure strode past the kneeling Disciple, the aforementioned blade clutched in its stone hands.

"Brutus, is the sword ready?"

Brutus replied with a nod, not bothering to speak. Cassius took the sword from the Second Disciple's hands and turned to face the tree once again. He whispered a few words of incantation before plunging the legendary blade deep into the wood. The tree was suddenly illuminated by a brilliant scarlet light. Jester yelped in surprise and fell to the ground face first.

Cassius stepped back and dusted off his hands as the light slowly faded away. He closed his eyes as new strength flowed through his body.

"Antenor, find the half breeds. Both of them. This time, you do not have the excuse of being in a weakened state. We are now all at full power."

The shapeshifter got up and bowed deeply before disappearing from sight.

Cassius clenched his hands into fists and allowed himself a low chuckle.

"Our time has come. It is time to unleash our power upon this pitiful world. Let the war begin."

...............................

Vergil burst through the church doors and slammed them shut behind him. He let his unconscious brother drop to the floor with a dull thud. Aeneas stood at the altar, his eyes closed and hands clasped together in what seemed to be a prayer. Vergil regarded the priest with a puzzled look.

"I never took you for the religious type, Aeneas. Despite your priest charade, I was under the impression that demons generally don't worship God."

Aeneas ignored him and remained still. Vergil stared at him and cleared his throat. The demon's eyes slowly opened and a look of shock spread across his wrinkled face.

"It has begun," he murmured.

Vergil raised an eyebrow.

"What has begun?"

"The Order has begun its attack. We have to work quickly. You have brought your brother, I see."

Vergil glanced at his twin's prone form.

"Sleeping on the job, as always," he snorted.

He walked over to Dante and shook his shoulders in an attempt to wake the sleeping half demon. Dante mumbled something and slapped at Vergil's hands.

"Wake up, you fool!"

Dante's eyes flew open and Vergil found himself staring down the barrel of a gun. Instantly, Yamato was pressed to Dante's throat.

"Vergil."

"Dante."

Both twins spat out each others names like a curse word.

"From the looks of it, you've got your memory back. Nice outfit," sneered Dante. Vergil noticed his brother's grip tighten around the obsidian handgun.

"Indeed, brother. You're just as I remember you. How unfortunate."

"I feel the love, bro. I feel the love."

Vergil glared down at his brother with cold eyes.

"This is not the time for your foolishness."

Dante smirked.

"I know you are, but what am I?"

Yamato twitched, drawing a sliver of blood from Dante's neck.

"You're a child," hissed Vergil.

Dante grinned and stuck out his tongue. Vergil's eyes flashed with blue light.

"I swear, Dante. One more thing out of your mouth and-"

"Brothers, please. There is no need for quarrelling at a time like this," said Aeneas as he strode down the aisle.

Dante glanced at what appeared to be an elderly priest.

"You're not fooling anyone with that disguise, pops. What's going on here?"

Aeneas smiled and gestured towards Vergil. The half demon sighed and stepped back, letting his blade drift away from Dante's neck. Dante slowly lowered his gun, but kept a wary eye on his twin as he got to his feet.

"I called a few of my old contacts and managed to find the address of one of yours. Enzo Ferino. I found you there, unconscious and had to deal with one of the Disciples of Sin. I subdued him and then brought you here."

"Was there a girl there?" Dante said, his voice rising.

"Yes, that troublesome wretch from the Temen Ni Gru. Is she your mate?"

Dante stiffened and shook his head vigorously.

"Hell no. What the hell gave you that idea?"

Vergil shrugged and looked at his brother curiously.

Dante pressed on when Vergil gave no answer.

"What happened to her? Is she alright?"

"I do not know. I left her there with the demon."

Dante sighed in exasperation.

"Jesus Christ, Vergil. I see you still haven't grown a heart after all these years."

"I had other things to worry about. That girl was not my concern. But that is besides the point. You are aware of the situation with the Order of Sin, I assume?"

To Vergil's surprise, Dante nodded.

"Well, brother. While it seems I have yet to develop a heart, you seem to have developed a brain."

Dante chuckled.

"I'm still working on that, Verge. Who's the old geezer?"

"This is Aeneas. He will be providing us assistance in our mission."

"And what might that be?"

"We have to stop the Order from releasing Judas."

"I'm one step ahead of you, bro. I've already iced one of them. Cain, or something like that."

Vergil just barely managed to hide his surprise at this statement.

"The Fifth Disciple. That leaves another four to kill. We have a lot of work to do."

"Woah, woah, woah. Slow down there. We? Who said I was willing to work with you? I don't need your help."

"You're a fool, Dante. Neither of us can defeat these demons alone. You saw first hand how powerful they are. And they haven't even achieved their full strength yet."

"Actually, yes they have."

Both Sons of Sparda span around to face the source of the voice. Arkham stared back at them with his mismatched eyes.

"You again!" snarled Dante. Ebony and Ivory appeared in his hands. Arkham raised his arms and stepped backwards.

"I mean you no harm, Dante."

Vergil grasped his twin's shoulder.

"He's working with us."

Dante twisted away and pointed one gun at Vergil and the other at Arkham.

"What the hell is with you? Us. We. I'm not working with you, I don't need your help. And that means all of you. Beat it."

Yamato slithered out of its sheath with a metallic hiss.

"Listen to me, you idiot. Your stubborness will get you no where. If we don't work together now, your precious humans will die. Every single one of them will be wiped out. The world as we know it will cease to exist," Vergil said, his voice calm and even.

Dante remained silent for a moment.

"Fine. But I still don't trust you."

Vergil sheathed Yamato and nodded in agreement.

"Nor do I trust you, brother."

"One more thing. What the hell is _he_ doing here?"

Dante gestured towards Arkham. The scarred face twisted into a smile.

"I'm the only one who knows exactly how to defeat them."

Aeneas, who had remained silent through out the majority of the conversation, suddenly gasped.

"We have company."

Seconds later, the doors flew off of their hinges.

...........

"Miss? Wake up, you need to get out of here. Miss!"

Lady's eyes fluttered open and her hand flew towards her gun belt. She relaxed slightly when she found herself staring up into the kindly face of a middle aged woman. The woman offered her a hand and after a moments hesitation, Lady took it. The woman helped her to her feet, and Lady swayed unsteadily, still groggy from her fall.

"How long was I out?" she said, her words slurring together slightly. She couldn't have been unconscious for long, as it was still dark.

"I don't know, I just found you lying here. Miss, we really have to get out of here, now!"

Lady gave the woman a questioning look.

"What's going on?"

"These strange people, they-" the woman stopped mid sentence and screamed as she was tackled to the ground by what appeared to be a young girl. Before Lady could react, the girl grasped the screaming woman by the jaw and forehead, and with a violent twist, snapped the woman's neck.

Lady gasped and drew the Desert Eagle from her belt as the girl turned to face her. By her estimation, the girl was no more than nine years old. She grinned at Lady, revealing teeth stained with blood. The girl shrieked and lunged forward.

BAM!

The girl's kneecap exploded in a shower of blood. She stumbled forward and fell on her face at Lady's feet. Kalina Ann swung downwards and the girl's head rolled away, separated from her body by Kalina Ann's blade. The girl's headless body writhed wildly for a few seconds before falling limp.

Lady kicked the body away and looked with wide eyes at the chaos surrounding her. Cars lay abandoned in the street as people fled on foot through the sea of stationary vehicles. Men, women and children of all shapes, sizes and ages pursued them, some of them sporting gruesome injuries. The strange predators leaped from the roof of one car to another to pounce upon anyone that was slow enough to come in their way. Blood ran thick in the streets as citizens were torn to pieces in front of Lady's eyes.

"My God..."

It was armageddon. Judgement Day had arrived.

A man charged at Lady, blood spurting from a gash in his throat. The huntress ducked under his arm and swept the man's legs out from under him. She swung Kalina Ann again and swiftly decapitated him. Panting, she moved towards the body of the middle aged woman who had woken her up.

Lady began to search the woman's pockets, and then pulled out a cell phone. She punched in a number and put the phone to her ear.

"Yo, it's Samurai. Who's this?" answered a gruff voice.

"It's Lady. I need to talk to you."

"I'd love to chat, but I'm a little busy at the moment."

"This is big, Shiro. Really big."

"Let me guess, creepy motherfuckers who just won't die."

"You've got them too?"

"Decapitating one as we speak."

"Didn't your mother ever tell you not to fight zombies while using the phone?"

"She might have mentioned it once or twice. Lady, what the hell is going on?"

Lady heard heavy footsteps behind her and she span around to deliver a kick to an elderly man's jaw. The old man staggered backwards and snarled before lunging again. Lady disabled him with a knee to the gut and slammed his face into a wall with her free hand.

"Meet me at the Resting Place, I'll explain there."

Lady hung up and delivered another well placed kick, this time to the old man's ribcage. Her foot drew the sound of crunching ribs and the old man doubled over, blood spewing from his lips. Lady hefted Kalina Ann once again, and his headless body slumped to the floor. Lady wiped the blood off of her weapon and looked up towards the sky.

It was going to be a long night.

**Author's Note****: **

**Early chapter again! Woo! This little chappy is a set up for big things to come, and from here on out, shit starts to get a little crazy. Also, I've been contemplating changing the name of the fic to _Devil May Cry: The Iscariot Seal_ for a number of reasons which I am not yet able to disclose. What do you guys thing? Yay or Nay?**


	16. Team Tanahashi

**Team Tanahashi**

Some people had names that suited them. For example, a Daniel may have looked very much like a Daniel. Or a Joshua may have looked very much like a Joshua. Toshiro "Samurai" Tanahashi was not one of these people. With that name, one might have expected a man of Japanese descent, not a six foot tall, heavily muscled black man. Toshiro had been found abandoned by an old Japanese couple, who became his adoptive parents. Due to his name and proficiency with blades, Toshiro became known as "Samurai" in the world of devil hunting.

Samurai pulled into the parking lot and eased his car into a free space. Across the lot on the boot of a car sat a slender female with oddly coloured eyes. The girl nodded at Samurai as he stepped out of the car. The hilt of a sword poked out from behind his shoulder. He bent down and wrenched a severed human arm from the spokes of one of his wheels before approaching the girl.

The devil hunter held the arm up to his face and studied it with a look of grim fascination. He tossed the arm aside as Lady hopped off of the car to greet him. Samurai's face split into a wide grin and he ensnared Lady in a bone crushing hug before she could even blink. Lady had yet to find a human who could move as fast as Samurai could.

"_Nee-chan_!" Samurai had a habit of slipping fragments of Japanese into his speech.

"It's been too long!"

Lady hastily wriggled out of Samurai's grip and pushed him away. Samurai wiped a glob of green slime from his leather jacket.

"Yuck, what's this stuff supposed to be?"

"I've had a long day," Lady sighed.

Samurai nodded.

"I've gotta be honest, _nee-chan. _I'm not liking this new look of yours. The slime really does clash with your eyes."

Lady smirked and punched the hunter's shoulder.

"What have you been up to, Shiro?"

"Well, funny story. I was kicking back at home after a day of back breaking labour, when suddenly, a couple of freaks storm in through my door and try to _eat _me. As you can understand, I was a little surprised. Care to fill me in?"

"Ever heard of the apocalypse? Essentially, that's what we're dealing with here."

"A couple of corpses running around town doesn't seem that bad. We've both faced much worse than this."

Lady opened her mouth, but whatever she said was drowned out by the roar of an engine as a gleaming black hummer screeched to a halt behind the pair of devil hunters. Samurai laughed and clapped his hands together.

"Well, if it isn't Tweedledee and Tweedledum."

The doors flew open and a man and a woman stepped out of the vehicle. The woman skipped towards Samurai and threw her arms around him. The man stood next to the car with his arms crossed and acknowledged Lady and Samurai with a nod. Even through his thick trench coat, the man's arms bulged with muscle.

"Lady, if you'd told me you'd invited this pair of idiots, I wouldn't have come," said Samurai with a laugh.

The woman let go of Samurai and stuck out her tongue before dancing over to Lady. The huntress suddenly found herself trapped in the woman's arms. Lady awkwardly patted the blonde woman's back.

"Nice to see you too, Alice."

Alice and Seamus McReary were twins, though they didn't look it. Alice was short and dainty with an almost elfin appearance. In contrast, Seamus stretched up to about 6'5 and was built like a bear on steroids. The family resemblance however, was clearly evident in their porcelain skin, sky blue eyes, and blonde hair. Seamus kept his short, while Alice's golden tresses flowed down past her shoulders.

"What's going on, Lady? Why did you call us here?" said Seamus, his voice a deep rumble.

"I'll explain in a second, when your sister stops suffocating me."

Alice released Lady and giggled. She smoothed down her designer blouse and floated back to her brother's side. Lady cleared her throat and clasped her hands together.

"I've brought you all here because I need help. Something big is happening. Something that I can't do alone. The Order of Sin has launched an attack on the human world."

Samurai's eyes widened.

"The Order of Sin? I thought that was just a legend? A scary story that devil hunter's spread to psyche each other out."

Lady shook her head and sighed.

"You have no idea how real this is. They've begun their assault on the human world and they're about to unseal their master."

Samurai groaned and began to finger his gun belt nervously.

"And it's up to us to stop this from happening, I suppose?" said Alice. Her voice had a musical quality and sounded far too cheerful considering the circumstances.

Lady nodded.

"That's right. We're the best hunters this city has to offer. Someone's missing though. Did any of you manage to get in contact with Viper or Hernandez? They didn't pick up their cells."

"Viper's dead. We passed by his apartment on the way here and found him on the sidewalk with his throat ripped out. I haven't heard from Hernandez in months," said Seamus.

The four fell silent for a moment before Samurai spoke up.

"Well, this is it then, isn't it. We're the only ones standing between this world and certain doom."

"A little melodramatic don't you think, Shiro?" said Alice.

"I'm just calling it how I see it. How the hell are four pathetic humans going to stop a demon that puts both Mundus and Sparda to shame?"

"Who are you calling pathetic?" growled Seamus.

"I'm being realistic. We don't stand a chance."

Lady silenced Samurai with another punch to the arm.

"That's bull shit and you know it."

Samurai stepped back, rubbing his arm.

"Well then, oh fearless leader. How do you propose we stop these bastards?"

Lady turned to the McReary twins.

"Alice, I need you to find someone."

One of the reasons why the McReary twins were such successful hunters was Alice's ability to sense demonic energy. Rumours indicated that she had acquired the ability after a close encounter with a powerful demon at a very young age. Neither Alice nor Seamus ever bothered to mention the origin of her ability.

Alice tilted her head to the side, puzzled.

"Someone? You know I can only find demons, Lady."

"Well, he's half a demon."

"You mean Dante, right? I'm not sure I can. I've never tried to find a half demon before."

"At least give it a shot. We need him."

A smile crept across Alice's face.

"_We_ need him? Or do you mean _you_ need him, Lady?"

Lady's eyes narrowed into angry slits.

"What are you talking about?"

"Nothing, I've just heard that you two have been working on missions together quite a lot lately. I was under the assumption you liked working alone."

Alice's smile widened and she winked at Lady.

"I'm working with you now, aren't I? Just shut up and do your job," Lady hissed through clenched teeth.

Behind Lady, Samurai shook with suppressed laughter. The huntress whirled around and fixed Samurai with a glare.

"Is something funny, Tanahashi?"

Samurai grinned and raised his hands in surrender.

"Nope. Nothing at all, chief."

Alice approached Lady, her brow furrowed in concentration.

"Do you have anything that belongs to him? I need a sample of his energy if I'm going to have any hope of finding him."

"Sorry, I haven't got anything."

Alice's lips curled into a frown. She pointed her palm at Lady as her eyes glazed over.

"You've got the residual energy of two powerful demons on you. One aura is bright green, the other is red."

Lady frowned. Green? She supposed that must have been from the fight with Antenor.

"Red sounds about right. That must be Dante's."

Alice nodded and clasped her hands together. Seamus appeared at her side and grasped her shoulder with his bear-like palm. Both McReary's closed their eyes and Alice began to twitch, her lips moving in a silent murmur. After a moment, Alice's eyes snapped open.

"I found him. He's not too far from here. Everybody in the car."

Seamus moved towards the hummer, but Alice dashed under his arm and before he could blink, she was in the driver's seat. She stuck out her tongue as the door slammed shut.

"It's my turn to drive."

Seamus rolled his eyes and got into the passenger seat. Samurai and Lady both hopped into the back seat and buckled up. Samurai spoke up as Alice keyed the ignition.

"So I've been thinking. Since we're all working together now, we need a group name. How about the Samurai Squad?"

Lady scowled at him.

"Okay then, how about Samurai's Angels? Team Tanahashi? Shiro and Friends?"

Seamus turned to face Samurai and growled.

"We're not your friends."

"Fine, Shiro and Acquaintances then?"

"Samurai?"

"Yes, Seamus?"

"Shut the hell up."

.....................................

A pair of Marionette's appeared at the entrance and were hurled to the side as a large man burst through the open doorway and sprinted towards Dante and Vergil. The man lunged at the two half demons, arms outstretched- and fell to the ground, his head rolling down the aisle. Vergil sheathed Yamato, ignoring Dante's glare.

"That was my kill and you know it."

"The early bird gets the worm, Dante."

Dante muttered something under his breath and crouched down into a fighting stance. More undead humans began to stream through the open doorway and Dante charged forward, Rebellion raised above his head. Vergil remained in his place, waiting for anyone brave enough to come within reach of his blade.

Dante cleaved off two heads with one swing of his sword and began to tear through the throng of walking corpses, his blade spinning at impossible speeds. A small boy managed to evade one of his swings and rushed towards Vergil. The boy fell to the ground in three separate pieces. Three more living corpses charged at Vergil and met the same fate. Vergil returned Yamato to its sheath and glanced over his shoulder to see that Arkham had disappeared. Aeneas stood at the altar, surveying the battle with an amused expression.

Rebellion tore through a man's throat and Dante turned around to see his brother standing away from the action.

"What's the matter, Verge? Afraid of getting a little blood on your new outfit? You're falling behind, I'm on seven already."

Another zombie fell victim to Dante's blade.

"Eight!"

Vergil sighed and rolled his eyes.

"This isn't a contest, Dante. But if you insist...."

The half demon disappeared in a flash of blue and reappeared at his brother's side. The two Sons of Sparda exploded into action. Rebellion and Yamato flashed through the air, slicing through flesh and bone with ease as the floor began to become slick with blood. Dante and Vergil came to a hault in the middle of the church, surrounded by the mangled remains of their opponents.

"Thirteen," panted Dante.

To his surprise, Vergil smiled.

"Fourteen."

"You've got to be kidding me!"

"I don't kid."

Vergil chuckled and sheathed his blade. Dante did the same with Rebellion and gave Vergil a curious look.

"My God. If I didn't know better, I'd think the great Vergil just let himself have a little fun?"

The smile disappeared.

"I have no time for fun. We are in the middle of a war."

"I guess that's the difference between you and me."

"Among other things, yes."

Vergil turned to face Dante, his eyes dark.

"You defeated Mundus."

Dante looked at Vergil, surprised.

"Yeah, what's it to you?"

"Even I failed at that task. You accomplished what I could not."

"It wasn't that simple, bro. Even with the help of Sparda's sword, I wasn't sure if I could win. Towards the end, I thought I was done for."

Vergil nodded and turned away. That gave him some peace of mind. Dante had wielded their Father's blade and had still only barely managed to defeat Mundus. Perhaps he wasn't stronger than Vergil after all. Vergil's eyes widened as a thought occurred to him.

"The sword, where is it now?"

"I left it with Tri- Oh, shit."

"You're joking."

"They've got it."

Vergil groaned.

"How could you let that abomination touch our Father's sword! That demon was clearly too weak to hold the blade."

Dante growled.

"She may have been a demon but she was twice the person you are," snarled the devil hunter.

"You defend that pathetic monster even in death. You're a weak fool."

"I'm stronger than you'll ever be, Vergil. Do you want to know why?"

"Enlighten me."

"You're more of a demon than you are a human."

Vergil sneered and turned away.

"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard."

"Have it your way, Verge."

The two Sons of Sparda stood in silence for a moment before a voice came from the doorway.

"Dante?"

Dante spun around and his face split into a grin. He began to walk down the aisle towards the entrance, the previous tension with Vergil all but forgotten.

"Lady! Fancy seeing you here!"

A pair of blonde humans appeared at Lady's side. Dante raised an eyebrow.

"You brought the twins?"

Alice pounced on Dante and caught him in a tight hug.

"Dante! I haven't seen you in months!"

The devil hunter extricated himself from her grasp and laughed.

"You're as friendly as ever, Alice. And I see your brother still pulls off the strong and silent routine better than most."

Seamus smirked and nodded at Dante. Samurai appeared from behind the big man's back and walked into the church.

"Never thought I'd find you in a church of all places, Dante. How've you been-" Samurai froze mid sentence as he saw the old man smiling at him from the altar.

"You!"

Aeneas chuckled and his eyes glinted menacingly in the candle light.

"I remember you. You were quite the troublesome pest, if I remember correctly."

Samurai drew his sword and narrowed his eyes. Lady shot him an uneasy look and placed a hand on her gunbelt. Dante looked back and forth between Aeneas and Samurai, his expression curious.

"You two know each other."

"We've met once or twice. This guy's at the top of the list of the most dangerous demons in the city. I've been hunting him for years. He always manages to slip right through my fingers."

"As I recall, we were unable to finish our last battle. How unfortunate," drawled Aeneas as he absent mindedly adjusted his robes.

"No time like the present."

Samurai was half way down the aisle in less than a second. There was a flash of blue light and the ringing sound of metal striking metal reverbrated through the air. Yamato and Samurai's katana locked together as their owners fought for control. Samurai shoved against Vergil's guard, but found that the half demon's arm didn't budge an inch. Vergil's arms tensed and Samurai staggered backwards a few steps and just barely managed to parry Vergil's follow up strike.

"As much as I would like to, I am afraid I can not allow you to harm my associate," said Vergil as he glared at Samurai with cold eyes.

Vergil launched an onslaught of lightning fast strikes at Samurai's torso, but to his surprise, the human managed to deflect them all. The two combatants movements accelerated and their swords became little more than indistinct blurs. Samurai lurched backwards, clutching his arm. Vergil smirked and moved in for the kill. Once again, to his astonishment, the human evaded his blade and rolled to the side.

Samurai backed away from the half demon slowly. He held his sword in one hand and used his other to put pressure on his wounded shoulder.

"You're pretty fast, for a human. But you're still no match for me," stated Vergil. The human was obviously skilled, however. Vergil was almost regretful that he would have to kill him. Almost.

Samurai grinned as Vergil approached him.

"Don't underestimate me."

Vergil froze as he felt a warmness on his cheeks. He touched his face and looked at his hand to find blood smeared on his finger. That insolent fool had managed to graze Vergil's cheek during their exchange. Vergil's eyes began to glow blue.

"How dare you...."

Dante appeared between him and Samurai, Ebony and Ivory pointed at Vergil's forehead.

"That's enough."

Vergil snarled and became engulfed in blue light. Following suit, Dante released his own devil trigger.

"You brought this on yourself, Verge. Let's rock." Dante's disembodied voice echoed off of the walls of the church.

Vergil bared his fangs and flourished Yamato.

"Finally, brother. It is time to settle this once and for all."

Dante unleashed a deafening roar and lunged.

**Author's Note: Ignore this if this is the first time you've read this chapter. **

**I made a few changes to this chapter in regards to Samurai's backstory with Aeneas. I'd had their story planned from the start, but as I wrote the drafts for the next few chapters, I realized that the missing parent sub plot really didn't add much to the story and didn't really serve any purpose. It just seemed to make things far too cluttered and I decided to simplify it a little bit. **


	17. The Hunters and The Hunted

**The Hunters and the Hunted**

The two Sons of Sparda collided and the air was filled with the earsplitting ring of clashing metal. Vergil stepped to the side, allowing a crimson blur to rocket past him. Dante span around and raised Rebellion just in time to parry a slash aimed to cleave his head from his shoulders. Vergil swung again, battering his brother's guard. Dante was forced back step by step as Vergil assaulted him with a whirlwind of lightning swift strikes.

The air around the twins shimmered as they fought, blades moving faster than the human eye could see. Vergil snarled in frustration and Yamato was once again deflected away from Dante's throat. Try as he might, he remained unable to land a hit on Dante. The red demon locked blades with his blue counterpart and shoved him backwards with a mighty burst of strength. Dante was now on the offensive and lunged at his brother, Rebellion flashing. Vergil just barely managed to meet Dante's strike. It was evident that his brother's speed had increased exponentially. To Vergil's surprise, the shock from the blow travelled all the way down his arm, despite him being in demon form. How strong had his brother become?

Near the entrance, Seamus moved towards the battling half demons, but a restraining hand pressed against his chest and forced the big man back.

"Let them fight. Trying to break them up will just get us killed," said Lady. She sighed and turned back to the battle, keeping a wary hand on her Desert Eagle. She glanced at Samurai who had wisely taken cover behind the altar. The priest, Aeneas was no where to be seen.

Vergil's slit-like eyes widened in surprise as Rebellion snuck under his guard and scored a glancing blow on Vergil's chest. The blade tore into Vergil's armoured skin before darting back to deliver another strike, this time aimed at Vergil's head. The wound was inconsequential in his current state and Vergil ignored the pain as he leaned back, avoiding the blade. Yamato tore through the air towards Dante's throat, but feinted away and changed directions to slice into the crimson scales on Dante's stomach. Rebellion momentarily dipped and Vergil pounced, seeing his opportunity. Two more cuts appeared in Dante's chest and Yamato stabbed into Dante's wrist, forcing him to drop his sword. Rebellion clattered to the ground and Vergil crowed in triumph.

He suddenly found himself being peppered by a hailstorm of flaming lead. Vergil cursed and flourished Yamato, the bullets ricocheting off of the blade. Changing tactics, Vergil leaped straight up into the air and spread his blade-like wings. Yamato sliced through empty space and a deep gouge appeared in the floor where Dante had been a split second before. With the sound of flapping wings, Dante ascended towards Vergil, Rebellion clutched in his clawed hands.

"You've gotten stronger, brother," Vergil hissed as he climbed higher, away from Dante's reach.

"You ain't seen nothin' yet, Verge. I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve." The devil hunter grinned, revealing his razor sharp fangs.

Vergil snarled and raised Yamato. The sword began to radiate an intense azure light. Seeing this, Dante tightened his grip on Rebellion and the blade became swathed in scarlet flames. Vergil knifed down towards Dante and the two brothers collided in midair and plunged towards the ground.

There was an explosion of red and blue light as the twins hit the ground with a deafening crash. Lady held her breath as the dust cleared and a silver haired head emerged from the smoking crater. A red coat followed as Dante staggered out of the hole in human form and breathing heavily. He straightened up, Rebellion swinging loosely from his hand. As his breathing slowed, the corner of his mouth curled up into a self satisfied smirk.

Behind him, Vergil rose out of the crater, smoothing his hair back. The ragged hole in his chest closed up and he glared at Dante, eyes blazing. Dante turned around and grinned at his brother mockingly. Vergil raised Yamato, a scowl plastered across his face. A bead of sweat trickled down the half demon's forehead. That little skirmish had taken more energy than he had first anticipated.

"You arrogant fool! This isn't over!"

"Some things never change. You always were a sore loser."

"Don't get cocky. You haven't won anything yet."

"_Enough_!"

Aeneas stepped out of the shadows, hands raised in a placating gesture. Both twins turned to stare at him disdainfully.

"What are you trying to say to us, gramps?" Dante scoffed.

"I allowed you to have your sparring session, but now we must get back on schedule."

Vergil scowled.

"Allow me? You did not _allow _me to do anything. I did as I pleased, and I will continue to do so."

"What he said," agreed Dante.

Aeneas shook his head and clasped his wrinkled hands together.

"There are more important things on our agenda than your little brotherly spat, amusing as it is. The Order has regained its power more quickly than I had first anticipated. We must ready the portal as soon as possible." His voice had an edge of urgency to it that caught both of the twins' attentions.

Vergil raised an eyebrow and sheathed Yamato. Dante followed suit and returned Rebellion to his back. The battle could wait.

"You never mentioned anything about a portal," said Vergil, eyeing Aeneas warily.

"I didn't have time to go into details. The two of you must-"

Aeneas trailed off as a blade pierced through the darkness and came to a halt at his throat. Vergil blinked, surprised at the dark skinned human's speed.

"Back off, _dobe._ I have some unfinished business to attend to."

Vergil casually let his hand drop to Yamato. This human was certainly a bizzare specimen. It amazed Vergil that such a lowly life form could even think to threaten a son of Sparda. It was amusing, in a sad sort of way. Vergil's sharp ears picked up the sound of footsteps behind him, and he turned to see the other three humans- devil hunters he assumed- walking quickly down the aisle towards the stand off. The existence of human devil hunters was equally amusing, and at the same time baffling. To think that mere humans could have any sort of success in killing even low class demons. They had no idea how weak they really were.

Vergil shook himself free of his musings and studied the trio that approached him. He recognised one as Arkham's daughter, the girl from the Temen Ni Gru, whose name continued to escape him. The second was a large man, standing taller than Vergil, with a short cut of blonde hair and a severe expression on his face. Vergil sneered.

No matter how large or muscular these humans were, none of them posed even the slightest threat. Bringing up the rear of the trio was the slender figure of another woman. Vergil's eyes lingered on the cascade of golden hair that flowed down past the woman's shoulders. The woman's eyes met his as she neared and Vergil realized he was staring. The woman stared back at him and a tentative smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. Vergil blinked in surprise and he forced his face to twist itself into a look of disgust. He averted his gaze and turned away.

Dante raised his hands in an attempt to calm Samurai down.

"Look, Samurai, I don't know if Lady filled you in, but some serious shit is going down. We need this guy."

Samurai's eyes darted to Dante, then back to the face of Aeneas. The demon had a far away look in his eye, as if he was bored. He raised a hand to stifle a yawn.

Samurai frowned and shot a glance at Lady, who nodded in response.

"You've got to put your grudge on hold for now, Shiro. The world is at stake."

Samurai sighed and begrudgingly withdrew his blade. Aeneas chuckled and stepped away from the devil hunter.

"That was certainly interesting."

Aneas began to pace across the room, gazing at the newcomers one by one. Dante and Vergil both fixed him with impatient glares.

"What's the hold up, old man?" called out Dante.

"Humans, I see. Such interesting creatures. Truth be told, I've never studied any devil hunters before. Perhaps you can all be of some assistance."

The demon raised his hands and the ground began to rumble. Automatically, each of the hunters drew a weapon. A stone pillar erupted from the floor a few feet from the group and showered them in fragments of stone. Three more pillars appeared, forming a square around the assortment of devil hunters and devils.

"What the hell is this?" said Lady as she pointed Kalina Ann at one of the pillars. Each of the pillars rose up to around seven feet and consisted of some kind of smooth, white stone that seemed to glow softly in the cande light.

"This, my dear is a portal to Hell."

Vergil's eyes narrowed and he stepped towards Aeneas, one hand grasping Yamato. Dante looked at the pillars with an amused expression as the hunters around him murmured uneasily.

"What exactly are you planning, Aeneas?" hissed Vergil.

"The Order's power is not something even our combined power can defeat. We are drastically outnumbered. I can't make puppets at the same rate that Cassius resurrects his undead soldiers. To succeed, we need to bring in some reinforcements. I need one of you sons of Sparda to go into the demon realm. Mundus had amassed an army of demons which he intended to unleash upon the human world. Now that he is in no condition to lead that army, it is up to one of you to take control and bring them to the human world."

Vergil snorted and shook his head.

"Easier said than done. Demons are not the most cooperative creatures to say the least, and they still hold a grudge against those of Sparda's bloodline. I sincerely doubt that they would follow us into battle."

"I hate to say it, but I have to agree with Vergil on that one," said Dante.

"All you have to do is inform them of the situation and tell them that I sent you. They should understand."

Dante rolled his eyes. "Let's suppose by some miracle, that actually works. How do we get the army back through the portal?"

"I was just about to get to that. One of you will stay in the human realm with me where we can open another portal. I'll explain in more detail soon."

"Thank you, Aeneas. I'll take it from here."

Lady stiffened at the sound of the gratingly familiar voice. All eyes darted to the source of the sound and were greeted by the baleful stare of a pair of mismatched eyes.

"Humans. How amusing."

Arkham stepped out of the shadows and cast a disapproving look at the assortment of devil hunters. Samurai fingered the hilt of his sword cautiously and Seamus narrowed his eyes as he positioned himself in between Arkham and his sister. Arkham's eyes passed over the face of each individual in the church and lingered on his daughter's. He almost smiled at the fury etched across the huntress' features.

"What's wrong, my dear? You don't seem very happy to see me?"

Lady ripped Kalina Ann from her back and aimed it at her father, but before she could fire, Dante gripped her wrist with one hand and plucked the weapon out of her grasp.

"Babe, it's alright-"

Dante's head snapped back, a smoking hole in his forehead. Kalina Ann fell to the ground with a thud.

"Don't call me babe," snarled Lady.

She charged towards Arkham, a Desert Eagle in each hand. Before she could reach him, a strong pair of arms wrapped around her waist. Instinctively, Lady jerked her elbow back and felt it collide with something hard. Seamus lurched away from her, clutching his nose. Samurai and Alice approached her from either side, but she dodged away from them, evading even Samurai's swift hands with her rage fuelled speed. Nothing would stop her from tearing her father limb from limb with her bare hands. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Vergil approach with Yamato in his hand.

Suddenly, something hit her from behind and she was thrown to the floor with a heavy weight lying on top of her. She twisted onto her back and found herself staring up at a familiar self assured smirk. She raised her guns, but the half demon's hands were too quick and pinned her wrists to the floor.

"I hope you enjoy me being on top of you as much as I do," he panted.

"Get off of me!"

"As long as you promise not to do anything stupid."

"I'm not promising anything."

"Lady, let me explain. I know your dad's a jerk off, but we need all the help we can get. I hate it as much as you do, but we need him to take these ass holes down."

"Listen to yourself! This is my father we're talking about! You of all people should know what he's capable of! You should know that there's no way that I can allow him to stand there and live!" Lady's voice rose and she struggled furiously against Dante's weight, to no avail.

Arkham watched the pair struggle, his eyes alight with amusement.

"Your hypocrisy is quite entertaining. You tell your hot headed friend to put aside his grudge, yet the fate of the world hangs in the balance and you're still single mindedly focused on your childish vendetta. By all means, kill me. You'll be dooming the entire human race to oblivion."

Dante twisted his head around and fixed Arkham with a glare before turning back to Lady. The fire coursing through Lady's veins slowly ebbed away as Arkham's words sank in. She stopped struggling and lay still, staring up at Dante with cold eyes.

"Let me go."

Dante remained silent for a moment as he stared into Lady's eyes, unsure of what to do. Finally, he released her arms and got off of her. Lady rose to her feet and brushed herself off, forcing the red mist of rage that clouded her vision to recede. She holstered her guns and walked over to where Kalina Ann lay on the floor, making sure not to look at her father. She slung the weapon over her shoulder and began to walk down the aisle.

Arkham's voice called after her.

"Where are you off to, Mary?"

Lady froze and screwed her eyes shut. She took a deep breath and with a supreme effort, continued walking.

"Running away won't solve anything, Mary. Your mother didn't raise you to be a coward."

Lady's step faltered, but she kept walking, her breath coming in ragged gasps. Every cell in her body screamed for Arkham's blood and it was taking very ounce of will power she possessed to keep walking.

Dante was at her side in a whirl of red and she heard footsteps behind her, no doubt the McRearys and Samurai following in her wake.

"Come on, Lady. We need your help," pleaded Dante.

"I'm sorry. I can't be in the same place as _he _is. Good luck, Dante."

Behind the huntress, a light, feminine voice spoke up. "Think this though, Lady! It's the end of the world we're talking about here!"

Lady grunted and continued walking. "I didn't ask you to follow me. Go back there and save the world. I don't give a damn."

"We'll follow you whether you like it or not, fearless leader. The Samurai Squad just wouldn't be the same without you," said Samurai.

Lady rolled her eyes, ignoring him. She placed her hand on the door and pushed to open it. The door didn't budge. She quickly withdrew her hand, shocked by how cold the wood was. Her eyes widened as she saw frost beginning to gather on the wood. At her side, Dante followed her line of sight and saw the frost. His eyes widened.

"We're in trouble."

"You have no idea, my friend."

All eyes turned to the man in a charcoal suit standing in the centre of the aisle.

"No one is leaving this church alive."


	18. Devils in a Midnight Mass

**Devils in a Midnight Mass**

"Pathetic."

Antenor couldn't suppress a disdainful chuckle as the bullets hurtling towards him were stopped by a thick wall of ice. Guns. Such pitiful excuses for weaponry had no hope of harming a Disciple of Sin. The changeling smirked and looked up to see a translucent stalagmite hanging from the ceiling. A vaguely humanoid shape stirred within the crystalline structure and the howling winds ripping through the church intensified. Ptolemy had always been more inclined to the theatrical approach.

Out of the corner of one eye, Antenor spied a flash of blue. He dropped down to his knees just as a katana whistled over his bowler hat. Yamato reversed and darted towards Antenor's throat, but was deflected by the razor thin blade of a rapier. Antenor stepped back, twirling his sword as Vergil lashed out with half a dozen strikesf within the span of a second. The half demon's speed was too much for Antenor and a ribbon of blood arced through the air as Yamato tore into Antenor's chest.

Antenor danced away from the blade, his outline beginning to shimmer. Vergil dashed forward and launched an intricate pattern of slashes that transformed Yamato into nothing more than an indistinct blur. There was a whirl of blue leather and Vergil's blade cut through nothing but thin air. He span around and stabbed at his own mirror image which parried Yamato with ease. Antenor weaved around Yamato once again reversed his faux version of the sword to slam the hilt into Vergil's stomach. Vergil slid backwards a few feet and an expression of surprise flitted across his face. The imposter grinned.

"You're fast. But I can be every bit as fast as you are."

"Let's put that to the test," scoffed Vergil.

He started forward, but before the half demon could take another step, he was engulfed in a veil of whirling snow flakes. Antenor heard the dull thud of boots hitting the floor behind him and he twisted around, blue shifting into red. Rebellion clashed with its exact double and blue eyes met green as the identical blades locked together. Dante matched Antenor's confident smirk and stared at him coolly over their crossed blades. His smirk faded away as he found that the Disciple's blade refused to budge. They were evenly matched.

Antenor's Rebellion suddenly melted away and Dante found himself encircled by a heavy steel chain. Before he could blink, the chain jerked violently and the half demon was sent flying through the air. He collided with something cold and hard and landed in a heap of red leather. Dante shook off the cobwebs and looked up to see his brother frozen solid. Dante couldn't help but grin.

"What's the matter, Verge? You look-"

There was a whirl of white and the devil hunter was snap frozen before he could finish his sentence. Antenor chuckled and shifted back into his regular form. He glanced over his shoulder to see that both the old priest and that traitor, Arkham were no where to be seen. There was another sound and Antenor turned around just in time to parry a slash aimed at his neck. The dark skinned human disappeared from sight and Antenor span his blade behind his back to bat aside the human's blade once again.

Antenor resisted the urge to laugh. This was far too easy. He flourished his rapier in front of him with one hand to deflect a hail of bullets from the other hunters and thrust the other hand back to catch the katana wielding human unaware. He felt his fist collide with a satisfying smack and saw the human collapse to the floor out of the corner of his eye. The two blonde humans leaped over the crumbling remains of the ice wall, continuing to fire at him with their pathetic weapons. The rapier turned into a circular shield which easily took the impact of the bullets.

Antenor looked up at the ceiling and called out at his fellow Disciple, an excited edge in his voice as he shouted over the howling winds.

"These ones are mine!"

The howling ceased.

Antenor thrust his arm out from behind of the shield and the limb shimmered before morphing into a twisting snake. The snake hissed and spat and the large male was suddenly pinned to the ground, covered in green slime. The female avoided the viscous stream with surprising agility and fired another volley of searing lead at the Fifth Disciple. The bullets were once again ineffective against Antenor's shield. There was a faint sound behind him, and on reflex, Antenor span around and slapped the dark skinned human across the face with his shield. The human was sent sliding across the floor, eyes rolling in the back of his head. In the same movement, the snake writhed and spewed out another burst of slime. The blonde woman stumbled and fell, her legs glued together.

BAM! BAM!

Antenor's kneecaps suddenly exploded in a shower of red and he involuntarily dropped to his knees. There was another booming gunshot and the shapeshifter was thrown forward onto his face. He twisted around to find the barrel of a shotgun pointing at his face. Arkham's daughter glared down at him with a pair of bizzare eyes. Antenor's stared back at her, his own eyes narrowed into emerald slits. She pulled the trigger.

Antenor raised his shield just in time to absorb the buckshot and twisted on the ground to kick at the girl's legs. The girl somersaulted over Antenor and raised the shotgun again, but before she could fire, Antenor's snake arm jerked towards her and she was hurled to the floor, arms pinned to her side by the green slime.

Antenor stood up and brushed himself off. The snake melted away and Antenor flexed his hand, his expression amused as he stared at the struggling female.

"This really must be embarassing for you. This is the second time today that you've been at my mercy. I suppose weakness runs in the family."

There was the whooshing sound of displaced air. Antenor raised his hand and caught the fist hurtling towards his face with ease. The shapeshifter smiled at Arkham's bewildered expression as he struggled to break free from Antenor's grip.

"I think I've proven my point."

"How....?"

Antenor's wrist twitched and Arkham corkscrewed through the air before landing with a thud on his back. Antenor sauntered over and placed his foot on Arkham's chest. Arkham gaped up at Antenor, his miscoloured eyes wide.

"You honestly thought that betraying the Order would be so easy? You would be nothing without us. Your speed? Your strength? I can control every aspect of your power. You're only as powerful as we want you to be. Without us, you're as human as your daughter."

Arkham's normally expressionless face twisted into a furious snarl.

"How dare you! I-"

"How dare I? How dare _you! _Cassius gave you life and this is how you repay him? Typical human. I knew you couldn't be trusted. Which is why I followed you here. I suppose I should thank you. You delivered us both sons of Sparda on a silver-"

_"FALCON PUNCH!"_

A crimson fist suddenly smashed into Antenor's face. The shapeshifter flew through the air until his momentum was halted by a wall. He crumpled to the floor, blood dripping from his mouth. Dante stood over Arkham, his devil trigger slowly fading away. The battle with Vergil had drained him of more energy than he cared to admit. Dante looked down at Arkham and frowned.

"I never thought I'd see the day when I'd have to save your ass instead of kick it."

A sudden chill raced up Dante's spine and he spun around to find a colossal white fist barreling towards his face. On pure instinct, his head tilted to the left and the fist hurtled past his ear. The fist withdrew and the ice golem raised its other arm to attack. It froze mid swing as a network of fine blue lines suddenly criss crossed their way across the golem's translucent body. The golem crumbled to pieces, reduced to little more than a pile of ice cubes.

A blue devil stepped away from the pile, admiring his handiwork through slit-like eyes. Vergil's devil trigger receded and Yamato returned to its sheath. He looked at Dante with a raised eyebrow.

"Falcon punch?"

Dante responded with a shrug.

"Just something I've always wanted to say. Seemed like as good a time as any."

Vergil rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to point out his brother's idiocy, but his words were drowned out by the high pitched screech that suddenly began to cut across the room, accompanied by a bright pulse of light that emanated from the four pillars surrounding the twins.

"The portal," Vergil hissed as he turned to Dante. "It's opening!"

"Thank you, Captain Obvious."

Dante drew Ebony and pointed it at the nearest pillar. His eyes travelled towards downwards as a streak of white shot out of the base of the stone to snake across the floor and connect with another pillar. The light emanating from the strange rock intensified and the streak continued on to connect with the other two pillars before completing the revolution by returning to its source. The screeching rose to a deafening crescendo and there was an intense flash of light.

Dante blinked rapidly as the bright spots in his eyes faded and the screeching ceased.

"What is it with demons and lights," he muttered.

The Sparda twins were surrounded by what appeared to be a luminescent cage made up of rays of scarlet light that lanced out of the still glowing pillars. The red walls stretched up almost to the ceiling. The floor began to tremble beneath their feet and the disembodied shrieks returned with a vengeance. Arkham staggered to his feet, his face gaunt.

"There's not much time- you have to-"

He was cut off by a deafening roar and the sudden crackle of flame. Arkham's body span through the air, hurtling straight through cage of light before slamming into the far wall.

Lady lay just outside of the scarlet beams of light, still struggling against the green slime. She stared with wide eyes through the bars of the cage as a beast that resembled a colossal centaur swathed in flames loomed over Dante and Vergil. A pair of wicked horns jutted out of the creature's skull. The creature held a sword in one hand, the gargantuan blade crackling with flame. In the other hand was the writhing body of Seamus McReary.

Seamus roared in a combination of anger and pain induced by the sweltering heat of the creature's grip. His fists thudded against the demon's cracked, rock-like skin to no avail.

**"This ends here,"** it snarled in a distorted rumble of a voice.

Vergil's hand darted to his blade, but Dante's hand was suddenly wrapped around his wrist. Vergil glared at his brother coldly.

"Let the human go. He has nothing to do with this," growled Dante.

Antenor's monstrous face split into a terrifying grin.

**"Make one move and the human-" **the demon's words turned into a surprised bellow. Alice McReary gripped its horns, ignoring the searing heat and jammed her finger down on the trigger of her machine gun.

Antenor roared and thrashed his head, trying to shake off the golden haired huntress. Alice held on for dear life, her legs wrapped tightly around the demon's neck. The blazing sword swung out wildly and clashed against one of the pillars in a cascade of sparks. The scarlet shafts spluttered and the air began to warp and shimmer. Dante took his chance and lunged forward. Vergil followed in his brother's stead, Yamato spinning in his hands.

The entire church was once again illuminated by a flash of blinding light.

Lady screwed her eyes shut and felt herself being hurled backwards. Her back hit something hard and she scrambled to her feet, finding that her arms were now free. A desert eagle appeared in her hands as her eyes flew open. To her shock, the shapeshifting demon had disappeared- along with the Sparda twins as well as the MacRearys.

Lady cursed, trying to make some sense of the situation. Suddenly, the walls creaked with an almighty groan. The church had evidently had enough. Lady looked up and barely had time to gasp as the ceiling collapsed on top of her.

.........

Dante groaned and rolled on to his hands and knees as his brain throbbed inside his skull. He had been thrown back and forth between dimensions far too many times today, even by his standards. He pushed up on the cracked stone and lurched to his feet. Dante let his eyes travel, taking in his surroundings. He stood on an intricately carved bridge, that stretched on for around 100 feet. The bridge was narrow with about enough room for perhaps three people to cross side by side. A river of lava bubbled beneath the structure, lapping at the thick stone pillars that held the bridge aloft with wave after wave of molten rock. He also noticed that Vergil and Antenor were nowhere to be seen. Dante snorted. At least that was a plus.

He looked up at the red tinged sky and took a deep breath, the hot, sulfur laced air burning his throat. The jagged outlines of mountains reared out of the scarlet mist that obscured the horizon, stretching up towards the clouds. Red sky? Sweltering heat? Fire and brimstone? It was Hell alright, no doubt about it. Dante rolled his eyes.

"Home sweet home."

"You took the words right out of my mouth."

Dante span around, swinging Rebellion with inhuman speed. There was a resounding clang as the massive broadsword clashed with the slender blade of a rapier. Antenor flitted backwards, away from Dante's blade and whirled his rapier as Ebony and Ivory appeared in the Devil Hunter's hands. Each bullet clattered uselessly to to the ground, cut into neat halves. Dante lowered the twin guns and released a sigh.

"You're really starting to get on my nerves, pal."

The changeling adjusted his bowler hat and chuckled.

"Glad I'm leaving an impression."

"This is the part where I'd usually say 'Go to Hell.' But it seems a little redundant at this point," growled the half demon.

Antenor cocked his head to the side and smirked.

"Your brother saved you last time, but you're on your own now. It's just you and me."

The air around Antenor's body began to shimmer with emerald light.

Ebony and Ivory snapped up to point at Antenor's head once again. Dante grinned and gave the shapeshifter a mocking wink.

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

**.........**

**Author's Note:**

**Slight updates to Death Warmed Up with some weapon descriptions added.**


End file.
